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ALCTS Forum: The Case for Making Video Content Accessible

May, 2018

Violaine Iglesias joins Karen Kiorpes in a forum on video accessibility. 

The ALCTS Forum, held at the 2018 ALA Midwinter Meeting, addressed the imperative to make video content accessible. The event emphasized the significance of multimedia accessibility, with ALCTS President Mary Beth Thompson thanking Sage Publications, Inc. for sponsorship. Violaine Iglesias from GVPi highlighted the advantages of accessibility, citing compliance with the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), broader audience reach, improved user experience, and heightened comprehension.  

Danielle Whren Johnson, copyright & special projects librarian at Loyola Notre Dame Library, shared insights on video captioning solutions developed over five years, emphasizing the importance of transcripts in license agreements for third-party hosted videos. Stefan Elnabli, media curation librarian at UC San Diego Library, stressed the intersection of preservation and accessibility, advocating for transcripts and closed captioning in Submission Information Packages for digitized videos. The event underscored the benefits of accessibility, with a technical hiccup reinforcing the need for diverse access options.