SundaySky and Accessibility
According to the WHO, more than a billion people worldwide experience some type of disability. In the United States alone, 26% of adults are living with some kind of disability. For many of these people, it can be difficult to engage with a video. The combination of sight, sound, and motion can make the interaction with the video challenging. To meet these challenges, it is necessary to design videos with accessibility in mind. When a video is accessible, you can reach and connect with all members of your audience.
Over the years, SundaySky has worked with web accessibility experts to ensure that the SundaySky video player (used to watch SundaySky videos) meets the major accessibility standards so that no viewer is left behind.
Accessibility Guidelines and Standards
SundaySky was guided by the following principles and guidelines in ensuring that the SundaySky player is compliant with accessibility standards:
Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 (ADA)
This is a federal law that prohibits discrimination based on disability in all areas of public life, including jobs, schools, transportation, and all public and private places that are open to the general public.
Section 508
Section 508 is part of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973. This is a federal law mandating that all electronic and information technology developed, procured, maintained, or used by the federal government be accessible to people with disabilities. This means that financial institutions, telecommunication companies, and healthcare organizations (among others) that provide services to or do business with the federal government must make their services available to people with disabilities.
WCAG 2.0 AA (Web Content Accessibility Guidelines)
This is a set of voluntary technical guidelines for web accessibility. The guidelines were developed and published by the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C), the main international standards organization for the Internet.
SundaySky Player—Accessibility Features
Closed Captioning
Purpose:
Closed captioning enables hearing-impaired users to read the captions on the screen as an alternative for video narration.
The closed captions are generated automatically by the platform according to the text that is entered into the voice-over placeholders. See Adding Closed Captioning to a Video to learn more.
How is this supported in the SundaySky player?
The viewer can enable closed captioning by clicking the closed captioning icon that appears on the control bar.
Keyboard Support
Purpose:
Using a keyboard instead of a mouse is essential for people with physical disabilities who cannot use a mouse and for those who are visually impaired and cannot see the mouse pointer on the screen. There are also people with chronic conditions, such as repetitive stress injuries, who should limit the use of a mouse.
How is this supported in the SundaySky player?
Pressing the Tab key advances the cursor to the next function in the player control bar.
| 1 | Play / Pause | 5 | Display / Hide the Chapter Menu |
| 2 | Mute On / Mute Off | 6 | Display Detailed Video Transcript |
| 3 | Volume | 7 | Closed Captioning On / Off |
| 4 | Visit the SundaySky Website | 8 | Enable Full Screen Mode |
Detailed Video Transcript
Purpose:
The detailed video transcript is an automatically-generated record of all the content that is included in the video. For each scene in the video, the transcript details the on-screen text, the voice-over narration, and the names of the media assets in the scene (both images and videos). The transcript can be read to visually-impaired users using screen-reading technology.
The video transcript is generated automatically by the platform and the function is added to the control bar via the landing page builder. For more information, see Configuring the Landing Page, step #3 (player tab).
How is this supported in the SundaySky player?
Clicking the transcript button displays a detailed video transcript in a new tab.
Screen Reader Support
Purpose:
With a screen reader, a visually-impaired person can consume content and interact with the player using hearing rather than sight.
How is this supported in the SundaySky player?
Text-to-speech output of all player controls, among them:
- Pause and play a video
- Mute a video
- Enable full screen mode
- Visit the SundaySky website
