CRII: HCC: Making Videos Accessible by Design

Videos are a popular way to consume information online. However, their audiovisual content is often inaccessible to a whole range of people (e.g., those who are deaf or hard-of-hearing or who are blind or have low vision. While methods for making videos accessible exist, videos are often created first and then modified to make them accessible. In addition, even when video files include appropriate accessibility features, playback contexts may introduce new challenges. These include small screen sizes or low volume in devices with small speakers. Expanding a recent concept of responsive videos, this project seeks to extend video responsiveness to encompass and mitigate a range of challenges. This should allow people with sensory disabilities to watch, listen or read the content of a video without missing critical information. The research will result in recommendations for responsive videos, which can be, by design, more accessible, adaptable, and useful for people with and without disabilities alike. The project aims to achieve three main objectives. First, the project team will employ content analysis to create a taxonomy of common audiovisual components in videos. These would need to adapt to variations in display sizes and changing audio-visual modalities (e.g. audio and visual modalities alone, and text-only modalities) to ensure accessibility. Second, a series of interviews and co-design sessions with DHH and BLV participants will explore these types of viewers' needs and requirements for video responsiveness. Third, the team will use design ethnography and interviews with non-disabled video creators to explore opportunities in the video creation and editing process. This process will generate the information needed to address the needs and requirements of viewers. Together, these efforts will help establish recommendations for the design and evaluation of responsive videos, leading to a holistic approach to making videos accessible by design. This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.