Extended Play Video (Audio Description)
Descriptive Transcript
Video giants like YouTube and Vimeo are letting us down
Adding Alternative Audio Tracks to Videos is not a nice-to-have feature, but an Important Accessibility Requirement
By Emma Kate Lauf, Digital Accessibility Coordinator
The laws about audio description requirements have been around for decades, way before Vimeo and YouTube existed. For example, the Rehabilitation Act (1998) mandated that all film, video, multimedia, and information technology produced or procured by federal agencies must include audio description beginning in 2001 (Audio Description Solutions).
Vimeo and YouTube were founded in 2004 and 2005 respectively, creating massive growth in video content across the web. YouTube’s popularity skyrocketed in a year with over 100 million videos streaming per day (BusinessWeek), a drastic increase from the late 1990s and early 2000s when user-generated video content was minimal. Not built with accessibility in mind, this technological advancement in YouTube and Vimeo’s popularity brought new problems for users, creators, and businesses alike.
Popular video platforms make it easy for anyone to be a creator. But without built-in accessibility requirements for audio description, they created a boom of inaccessible video content. Almost 20 years later, secondary audio tracks for audio description still aren't available for all users. Even though creators and businesses are legally required to have audio description, Vimeo and YouTube haven’t prioritized this accessibility must-have for end-users, requiring creators to deliver accessible versions as a separate video. These companies have not taken enough steps to ensure that all users have access to video content, which is a form of ableism.
It’s important to remember that accessibility is not a feature – it’s a requirement. Businesses are legally responsible for delivering video content that meets Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) standards. Audio description is required to reach the industry standard of WCAG 2.1 AA. Creators and businesses responsible for publishing video content should not be hindered by a video platform that does not provide the capability to meet these requirements.
Breaking down the problem
We all know that gear icon at the bottom of video players that lets you customize your experience. Sometimes you want to change the video speed, other times you want to adjust the quality of playback. But does it provide everything we need? Unfortunately, no. I say this because the button usually lacks basic accessibility requirements, particularly the option to add secondary audio tracks, which helps ensure everyone can experience the video.
Secondary audio tracks for videos are not just nice to have — they are critical accessibility requirements that users depend on to access video content. Secondary audio tracks are enabled when file types, such as WAV, M4A, AAC, and MP3 files are uploaded to the video platform so users have the options to turn on and select their preferred audio track in the video settings.
There are multiple reasons why a user might need to change the audio track of the video. They might speak a language that isn’t spoken in the video and therefore need a dubbed version. Other users might require audio description, which is a vocal narration that describes actions, settings, and expressions during pauses in dialogue, helping users understand the content better. This aspect of audio is vital for people who are Blind or have visual impairments, since some imagery in videos is not fully explained audibly.
YouTube does offer multiple audio tracks for one video, but the capability is not available to all content creators. It is only available to some creators, most likely those with larger subscriber counts. YouTube noted that “You may not have multi-language audio available. We will continue to roll this feature out to more creators” (YouTube Help). Note the use of the word “feature” here. There has been no specific timeline on this yet.
Vimeo also allows creators to upload multiple audio tracks to one video, which is more inclusive than YouTube. The requirement is available to users on Free and Basic plans and above and is not limited to creators with large audiences. Here are the details: If you have a Free account, you can add one additional audio track per uploaded video. Paid members can add up to 20 audio tracks per uploaded video, and on an Enterprise plan, you can add up to 50 (Vimeo).
Creators committed to accessibility are forced to find workarounds
To be more inclusive, some video creators make dubbed videos with language support, or separate versions of videos with audio description in addition to the original video. This process is inefficient and ineffective for three reasons:
- Time-consuming: Instead of having to create two separate video files to then upload separately on video platforms like YouTube or Vimeo, creators should be able to upload just one version of the video with secondary audio tracks. More time would be saved on the part of the person creating the video while achieving the same results for accessible viewing experiences.
- Hard to manage: Uploading two different versions of the same video is ineffective for managing and tracking viewer traffic analytics for the creator. Instead of one video receiving a high level of engagement, there are split levels of website traffic across multiple videos, which makes keeping track of views more difficult.
- Requires trade-offs: If brands and businesses are embedding a YouTube video on their website, they have a difficult choice to make to embed the version without audio description. From there, they need to add a link to the audio described version, which requires more work from web teams.
Brands and businesses have the option of using 3 Play Media’s audio description plug-in which allows users to add audio description for their videos. This plug-in is super helpful to businesses, and we’re glad it exists. YouTube and Vimeo should still offer in-house basic accessibility requirements.
YouTube and Vimeo already offer AI and caption editing capabilities within the creator studio. Secondary audio tracks are also a part of the creative workflow. Users should be able to easily create and upload audio tracks just like they can with captions.
A deep dive on the workflows of each platform
YouTube
Scribely tested out the user journey for adding audio description to a YouTube video. We do not have the option to upload audio description in the Creator Studio – only alternative language tracks:
Alt text: A screenshot from Scribely’s Creator Studio. In the selected Subtitles section when clicking the “Add language” button, there is no explicit way to add audio description.
Since not all creators have secondary audio tracks available, significant and disruptive accessibility barriers persist for Blind and visually impaired users. The only way to be completely inclusive on the platform is to upload two separate videos (one with the original audio and the other with audio description or multi-language audio).
For the accounts that are able to upload secondary audio tracks for a video, here is how users can customize their viewing experience:
- Click the gear icon on the video playback menu.
Alt text: Screenshot from YouTube’s video player. Buttons include: toggle Autoplay, Subtitles/closed captions (c), Settings, Miniplayer (i), Theater mode (t), and Full screen (f). An orange rectangular annotation highlights the gear icon that represents Settings.
- Click Audio track.
Alt text: Screenshot from the Settings menu in YouTube’s video player. Buttons include: toggle Stable Volume, toggle Annotations, Audio track, Subtitles/CC, Playback speed, toggle Sleep timer, and Quality. An orange rectangular annotation highlights the Audio track setting.
- Select the desired audio track (example: English audio description).
Alt text: Within the Audio track menu in YouTube’s video player, there are two options: English descriptive and English original. An orange rectangular annotation highlights the English descriptive option. A check mark indicates that English descriptive is selected.
Alternative audio tracks for audio description and multi-language purposes must be available for all creators to have a true impact. Many creators with a small but loyal audience would greatly benefit from this. It’s time YouTube rolls it out to everyone.
Vimeo
Next up is Vimeo, another well-known video sharing platform. Vimeo does allow creators to upload secondary audio tracks for one video, but you have to choose between a language track and audio description on the free plan.
Here are the details: If you have a Free account, you can add only one additional audio track per uploaded video. Paid members can add up to 20 audio tracks per uploaded video, and on an Enterprise plan, you can add up to 50 (Vimeo). This is a problem because accessibility is not a language and shouldn’t have to compete with language, either. Audio description is a basic accessibility requirement and should be free for all creators, like captions.
Vimeo does have help and updates pages on their website dedicated to secondary audio tracks, specifically highlighting the accessibility benefits for users and creators on a product page: “new support for multiple audio tracks allows you to include multi-language or descriptive audio, commentary tracks, and more, which means you can further customize your viewer experience and reach more people” (Vimeo). There are step by step instructions, video tutorials, and information about compatible audio formats to help creators get started.
With videos that do have secondary audio tracks, here’s how to access them on Vimeo:
- Click the gear icon.
Alt text: Screenshot of Vimeo’s video player. Buttons include: adjust volume, Settings, Picture-in-Picture, Fullscreen, and a clickable Vimeo logo. An orange rectangular annotation highlights the gear icon that represents Settings.
- Select Audio to see all options available, like audio description or different languages.
Alt text: Screenshot from the Settings menu in Vimeo’s video player. Buttons include: Quality, Speed, and Audio. An orange rectangular annotation highlights the Audio option.
- Select your desired audio track.
Alt text: Within the Audio menu in Vimeo’s video player, there are two options: Original Audio and English (Audio Descriptions). An orange rectangular annotation highlights the English (Audio Descriptions) option. A check mark indicates that English (Audio Descriptions) is selected.
Takeaways
It’s clear that the ability to upload secondary audio tracks to one video is paramount for people’s viewing experience. When it comes to video accessibility, many users require audio description and/or alternate language support. Video creators and users need video platforms to embed accessibility steps into their product workflows to finally help creators deliver accessible video as a mainstream reality. These steps must be seamless and easy to use. The impact is huge.
YouTube currently has 2.49 billion users, which is half of the global online population (Backlinko). The World Health Organization estimates 2.5 billion people worldwide are assistive technology users, with that number projected to reach 3.5 billion by 2050 (Level Access). At least 2.2 billion people have vision impairments or Blindness globally (World Health Organization). Around 43% of people are bilingual, with 17% being multilingual (Preply). This means that more than half of the world's population can speak more than one language fluently. With these stats in mind, it’s critical to understand the scope of how many people would benefit from a full rollout of secondary audio tracks. All of these users require audio description. With so many ways to consume media, keeping all users in mind when designing a web experience is key to an inclusive and useful digital world.
YouTube’s shortcoming in not prioritizing the rollout of this requirement for all creators and users is disappointing. It’s time for video platforms like YouTube to walk the walk and have a clear statement and transparency about how they are working to achieve full video accessibility on their platform. We also need Vimeo to allow more than one secondary audio description track on the Free plan. Creators should not have to choose between language accessibility and digital accessibility.
If we can solve this issue, the digital future will be much more inclusive. It’s important to give that extra effort of rolling out the requirement to everyone. People deserve to be excited about audio description. The digital world is transforming all the time, with new platforms gaining relevancy over others. If YouTube and Vimeo don’t do it, someone else will step up and reinvent a more accessible web.
Here are a few opportunities we see for YouTube and Vimeo’s product roadmap:
- Make secondary audio tracks available as a basic accessibility requirement that is available to all creators within the Creator Studio,
- Distinguish audio description from language features. Audio description is for accessibility; dubbing is for language,
- Ensure audio description is available through all API integrations so creators and businesses can make videos accessible on their website and social media,
- Create a separate button or selection within the player settings for audio description, like captions. This should be an on/off toggle.
The internet is for everyone. Accessibility is not an upgrade or a privilege to provide.
