Accessible Media
Find courses, instructions, consulting and service offers accessible audio-visual and interactive media
The following courses, advice and services as well as the instructions listed below are based on resources from the W3C Web Accessibility Initiative (WAI): external page Making Audio and Video Media Accessible.
Courses, Consulting and Services
Find our courses, workshops and consulting offers on accessible audio-visual and interactive media. The UTL Media & Methods Lab is happy to support you in creating top-notch audio-visual and interactive learning media.
Upcoming course dates
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Consulting and Services
If you have more extensive problems or concerns than those listed below under Instructions and resources, please do not hesitate to contact us. We are ready to support you indivdually:
If you want to develop an entire media product for your teaching, we recommend our UTL Media & Methods Lab. We look forward to working with you to create an exciting and professional media product.
Instructions and Ressources
Find step-by-step instructions and further ressources on how to create accessible media: Creating subtitles, (closed) captions, audiodescription / integrated descriptions, media player accessibility, ...
In a nutshell
- Provide subtitles / (closed) captions for all of your videos.
- Always offer your audio-visual media in accessible media players
- Good contrasts ensure that visual information such as text or statistical graphics is easy to read and perceive.
- Script-based media (instructional videos, animations, etc.) help to ensure that the most important information from media content is present in the audio track of a video.
Most of the following aspects follow the 2-Senses Principle as described in detail under A11y Big 5.
Provide all your videos (filmed or animated) with subtitles or closed captions, respectively.
Sonix.ai
Use automatic transcription software, but check and correct them if necessary.
ETH offers employees licenses for the provider sonix.ai. Sonix.ai offers good quality transcriptions and has an easy-to-use user interface:
Closed captions vs. subtitles
In line with the principle of “flexible output”, we recommend always embedding subtitles in videos as closed captions. Unlike burned-in subtitles, closed captions can be toggled on and off at will, ideally even in different languages.
Check which caption file formats can be uploaded for the video player you are using. E.g. WebVTT, SRT, TTML, etc.
Recommendations for subtitles (from HK)
The Department of University Communication offers further tips on subtitles and further information on accessible videos.
Video players differ greatly in their accessibility. The accessibility of the products can also change over time. It is therefore important to clarify the situation in advance when making major decisions.
We are currently having good experiences with
- Kaltura's video players in Moodle (full player),
- embedded YouTube or Vimeo video players or with
- the external page HTML5 player video js for web applications.
A good contrast ratio (greater than 4.5:1) is required between text and background or between data points in a statistical graphic and the respective background. If such content is displayed in videos, this also applies there.
More on this on Colours & Contrast as part of the A11y big 5
High-quality educational video productions include combinations of video recordings, animations, stills as well as interactive elements. Usually the visual content of such video productions serves to visualize and emphasize the linguistically conveyed content.
We recommend that educational videos are based on scripts. This ensures that all the information conveyed visually (including text and charts in stills) is available in the audio track and therefore also in the transcription (as text). This procedure saves on the costly production of audio descriptions.
If you want to know more about high-quality script-based educational videos we are happy to advise you at the UTL Media & Methods Lab.
Subtitles / Closed Captions
Lecture recordings have been automatically subtitled since fall semester HS 2023; the quality of these subtitles varies depending on various features of the video (discipline, accent, etc.).
It is therefore important that the transcriptions / subtitles are regularly checked for quality and edited or deleted if necessary.
Please note the information on the procedure for correcting / deleting automatically generated subtitles of lecture recordings under
Accessibility - IT Knowledge Base - Confluence (unlimited.ethz.ch)
Audio descriptions / integrated descriptions
The accessibility of lecture recordings for blind and visually impaired people stands and falls with the way in which the content (slide presentation, demonstrations, experiments, ...) is conveyed and verbally described by the lecturers.
We ask and encourage all lecturers at ETH to always explain all content projected or shown in courses orally/linguistically.
See external page Integrate Video Description (WAI resource)
The Department of University Communication offers further information on accessible videos.