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Question

Alt Text for Video

Forum|Forum|7 years ago
March 4, 2019
5 replies
3651 views

We are making an interactive PDF that contains a few video files with voice narration narrated (MP4s). We are trying to add alt text so that when a user hovers over their mouse over the video, they can read what is being said. I have tried adding the alt text using Object > Object Export Options and choosing "Custom" from the Alt Text Source drop-down menu. But when I export the PDF, all that shows when hovering your mouse over the file is a "Click to Activate..." tool tip. We want to get rid of that and show the alt text instead. We have a separate button that controls playback of the video. Thanks.

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Bevi Chagnon - PubCom.com

Legend

Bob and David (Ideas) are correct: your software is very out of date, and embedding a video into a PDF is dicey. It may or may not play on the user's device.

Another option:

Place the first frame of the video as a graphic into the layout, hyperlink it to an external website (YouTube if you want it public, Vimeo, BrightCove, or your own website if you want it private), and add Alt-Text to the graphic that states "Screen capture of the ABC video."

And have the closed captioning on the video, wherever it is posted.

Yes, you can have live text scroll with the video instead of closed captioning, but the downside is that it should be synched to the video frames. That requires professional captioning software or a competent contractor.

|    Bevi Chagnon   |  Designer, Trainer, & Technologist for Accessible Documents ||    PubCom |    Classes & Books for Accessible InDesign, PDFs & MS Office |

Bevi Chagnon - PubCom.com

Legend

Yes, it's closed captioning that should go on the video clip, and then the vldeo is embedded into the PDF. No Alt-text is needed on the clip. (FYI, the guidelines recommend 300 characters max for Alt-text, so there is no way you'd be able to caption a video in just 300 characters.)

We do not recommend "burning" captions into the video because that method is not fully accessible to all assistive technologies (AT). Remember, accessibility must meet the needs of all people, regardless of their disability and AT.

To learn more about CC, visit the Media Access Group at the WGBH website (yes, public TV's Boston station developed the concept and provides excellent information about the process): http://main.wgbh.org/wgbh/pages/mag/services/captioning/faq/

You can create your own captioning and many software programs are available. You also can contract it out to qualified vendors. Our shop recommends 3PlayMedia at https://www.3playmedia.com/

|    Bevi Chagnon   |  Designer, Trainer, & Technologist for Accessible Documents ||    PubCom |    Classes & Books for Accessible InDesign, PDFs & MS Office |

Dave Creamer of IDEAS

Community Expert

Thank you, Bevi--good point. I was limiting my thinking to the delivery medium. Best to pick a different format as Bob is suggesting.

David Creamer: Community Expert (ACI and ACE 1995-2023)

Dave Creamer of IDEAS

Community Expert

If you are dealing with accessibility, that can't work. You need to add closed captions for video.

David Creamer: Community Expert (ACI and ACE 1995-2023)

michaelm19617145Author

Known Participant

Yes, it is because of accessibility and I believe you are correct in that we have to add closed captions instead. I am looking into that now. I noticed that there are several controllers that can be used to play the video that have a "Closed Captions" button. Would you happen to know where these captions are coming from? Are they added in InDesign or when we create the video?

Bevi Chagnon - PubCom.com

Legend

Ha ha didn't realize we were that far behind! The vision was to have a printable document (i.e., PDF) that had a few interactive properties when viewed online, such as voice narration that would read some text and a few small videos, etc. But yes, I think we might have to rethink the whole thing. Would you recommend maybe some of the alternatives that Derek above mentioned such as FXL ePub, or InDesign‘s Publish Online? Or maybe something else?

michaelm19617145 wrote
Would you recommend maybe some of the alternatives that Derek above mentioned such as FXL ePub, or InDesign‘s Publish Online? Or maybe something else?

If you're concerned about accessibility (which requires the Alt-text and closed captioning you mentioned in the original post), then no. None of those formats are fully accessible.

EPUB still has too many proprietary features that fail many screen readers and other assistive technologies. Very dicey. You have to tweak the EPUB for each type/brand of EPUB reader. Publish Online doesn't have any accessibility. (One of my firm's corporate partners is testing various technologies for her PhD in accessible documents and is coming up short on alternative formats that actually work.)

Most accessible formats are HTML, PDF, and native Word.

|    Bevi Chagnon   |  Designer, Trainer, & Technologist for Accessible Documents ||    PubCom |    Classes & Books for Accessible InDesign, PDFs & MS Office |

Derek Cross

Community Expert

PDF is not the format to use for videos, instead look at FXL ePub, InDesign‘s Publish Online, link to an external source, such as YouTube or consider using In5: Export HTML5 from InDesign with in5 - Home

Michael Bullo

Community Expert

This is not a fix but a work-around. Could you put this text inside something nicely formatted and have that something revealed by clicking on a button or a mouseover?

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