As of 23 September, all public sector websites in Europe must comply with the WCAG legislation on web accessibility. According to these rules, the entire website must be accessible to everyone, which includes all video content.

WCAG & Online Video

The WCAG is an enormously comprehensive document with guidelines for how a website needs to comply in terms of digital accessibility. To help you on your way, we’ve listed the accessibility features what your video should have:

  • Textual alternative
  • Audio description
  • Captions
  • Transcript

 

The Blue Billywig video player meets all these requirements. Learn more about accessible video.

Automatic subtitles with Speech to Text

To make creating accessible videos even easier, the Online Video Platform can add subtitles to your videos automatically by utilizing speech to text technology.

If you want to take it a step further and have fully barrier-free videos, we offer solutions in cooperation with a partner. Please contact your customer success manager for more information or to start using this feature.

WCAG and commercial websites

Although the WCAG standard is not mandatory for commercial websites, there are many advantages to applying these guidelines. In the Netherlands alone, for example, no less than 4,85% of the population have a restriction that prevents or reduces access to your content if it is not adhering to the guidelines.

In addition, accessible content contributes to an improved user experience and makes your website easier to index for search engines and therefore contributes positively to your SEO.

Read more about the benefits of web guidelines in this blog.