Video is one of the most powerful and engaging ways to communicate a message whether you’re trying to educate, promote, or inspire. But without proper accessibility measures, you could be unintentionally excluding a significant portion of your audience. People with hearing impairments, visual impairments, cognitive challenges, or motor limitations may struggle to engage with your content if it’s not designed with their needs in mind.
That’s why accessibility shouldn’t be treated as an afterthought or simply a checkbox to tick for compliance. It should be woven into your video production process from the very beginning from the moment you start brainstorming ideas and writing your script, right through to the final stages of editing and export.
Making your videos accessible isn’t just the right thing to do ethically it’s also a smart strategy for broadening your reach. By designing your content to be inclusive from the start, you open it up to a wider audience, improve viewer engagement, and make your message clearer and more impactful for everyone.
In this guide, we’ll take you step by step through the best practices for planning accessible videos. Whether you’re working on a product explainer, a marketing campaign, or internal training materials, you’ll learn how to ensure your content can be easily understood, navigated, and enjoyed by all viewers regardless of ability.
Why Video Accessibility Matters
Making your videos accessible isn’t just about ticking boxes or following regulations it’s about ensuring that every person, regardless of their abilities, can engage with your message. And when you prioritise accessibility from the outset, the benefits go far beyond just meeting compliance standards.
Here’s why building accessibility into your video strategy is a smart move for everyone involved:
- Reach a wider audience: Globally, millions of people live with disabilities that can affect how they experience video whether it’s hearing loss, visual impairments, cognitive differences, or mobility limitations. When your content is accessible, you’re no longer excluding a large and important segment of the population. You’re making sure your message reaches as many people as possible.
- Meet legal requirements: Accessibility isn’t just a best practice it’s often a legal requirement. Depending on where you operate, you may be bound by laws such as the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) in the US, the Equality Act in the UK, or Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) internationally. Ignoring these standards could expose your brand to legal risk.
- Improve viewer engagement: Even people without disabilities benefit from accessible videos. Captions are incredibly useful in noisy environments, or when someone is watching a video without headphones in public. Audio descriptions and clear visuals also help everyone better understand complex content.
- Boost your SEO and discoverability: Search engines can’t “watch” your video, but they can index transcripts and captions. By including these elements, you make your content more searchable and increase its visibility across platforms like Google and YouTube.
- Enhance your brand reputation: When you make accessibility a priority, it sends a powerful message. It shows that your brand values inclusivity, empathy, and user experience. This builds trust and loyalty among your audience and it’s something customers, employees, and partners will remember.
Write an Accessibility-Friendly Script
Accessibility doesn’t begin in the editing suite it starts with your script. What you write lays the foundation for everything that follows, from voiceover to captions to audio descriptions. A well-thought-out script makes your content easier to follow, more inclusive, and simpler to adapt for different formats and audiences.
Here’s how to craft a script that supports accessibility from the ground up:
- Avoid jargon and overly complex language: Use simple, clear wording that’s easy to understand. Industry-specific terms or technical phrases can be confusing for viewers with cognitive disabilities or anyone unfamiliar with your subject. If jargon is necessary, define it in plain terms.
- Use descriptive language especially when visuals carry meaning: If your video relies on visual elements (like charts, product demos, or body language), make sure the spoken script includes descriptions of what’s happening. This helps viewers with visual impairments follow along, even if they can’t see the screen clearly.
- Include cues for meaningful sounds: Sounds often contribute to storytelling, so it’s important to reference them in the script if they’re essential to understanding the message. Think about moments like a door slamming, an audience laughing, or a phone ringing cues like these should be written into the narration or captions.
- Time your voiceover or narration carefully: Allow natural pauses between sentences and avoid speaking too quickly. This gives editors more flexibility when adding captions, audio descriptions, or translated dubbing later. Plus, it helps all viewers absorb the information more comfortably.
- Maintain a consistent tone and pace: A clear, calm, and evenly paced voiceover is easier for everyone to understand especially for people who are hard of hearing, have auditory processing challenges, or rely on translated subtitles or sign language interpretation.
- Think beyond the script plan for localisation and adaptation: Writing with accessibility in mind also makes it easier to adapt your content for international audiences. Clear language and well-timed narration simplify translation, dubbing, and localisation, helping your video reach even more viewers across languages and cultures.
Plan Your Visuals with Clarity and Contrast
Good visual design helps all viewers but is essential for those with low vision or cognitive differences.
Here’s what to focus on:
- High colour contrast between text and background (WCAG recommends a ratio of 4.5:1)
- Avoid red/green combinations these are difficult for people with colour blindness
- Use readable fonts (sans-serif, large enough, no excessive animation)
- Don’t rely solely on colour to convey meaning use shapes or text too
- Place text in safe areas of the screen, away from key visual elements
Use tools like the WebAIM contrast checker to validate your design choices.
Add Captions The Right Way
Captions are non-negotiable for accessibility. But not all captions are created equal.
Types of captions:
- Closed captions (CC): Can be turned on/off by the viewer
- Open captions: Burned into the video and always visible
- Subtitles: Often only include speech, not sound effects or speaker labels
Best practices:
- Include speaker names where unclear
- Describe non-verbal audio cues (“[cheering]”, “[phone ringing]”)
- Use proper spelling, grammar, and punctuation
- Time captions precisely sync with audio, not too fast or too slow
- Avoid auto-captioning without editing it’s often riddled with errors
Use tools like YouTube Studio, Descript, or professional captioning services for best results.
Use Audio Descriptions for Visual Content
Audio descriptions are narrated explanations of what’s happening visually especially helpful for blind or low-vision viewers.
You should add them when:
- Key information is delivered visually (e.g. “the CEO shakes hands with the award winner”)
- There’s no dialogue explaining what’s happening
- Visuals add context, emotion, or meaning
You can:
- Create a separate video with added description
- Integrate short descriptive phrases during natural pauses in narration
- Use platforms that support dual audio tracks for descriptions
It takes a bit more planning, but it ensures your video is inclusive to all.
Use Clear Audio and Sound Design
When it comes to accessibility, people often focus on visuals first but audio plays just as crucial a role. Poor sound quality can make your video frustrating or even impossible to follow, especially for viewers with hearing difficulties, auditory processing disorders, or those watching in noisy environments.
Here are some key tips to ensure your audio is as clear and accessible as possible:
- Invest in professional microphones – Avoid relying on built-in camera mics or low-quality recording devices. These often pick up ambient noise, echo, or muffled speech. A good lapel, shotgun, or condenser mic can significantly improve clarity.
- Control your environment – Record in quiet, acoustically treated spaces whenever possible. Soft furnishings, carpets, and sound panels help absorb echo and reduce distracting background noise.
- Balance your mix carefully – Ensure that dialogue is always clear and intelligible above background music or sound effects. Avoid letting music overpower important spoken content.
- Avoid sound-only cues – If something critical happens in your video (like a scene change or emotional shift), don’t rely solely on sound to communicate it. Pair it with visual cues like text, symbols, or on-screen action.
- Pace your narration – Leave intentional pauses in your voiceover for viewers to process information or read any accompanying visuals or captions. Fast, dense narration can overwhelm and alienate viewers.
- Be intentional with voiceover delivery – Choose voice talent with a neutral accent and clear diction. Avoid overly dramatic or fast-paced reads unless they serve a specific creative purpose. A calm, steady pace and natural tone help keep your content accessible to a wider audience.
Design with Screen Reader Compatibility in Mind
While screen readers can’t “watch” a video or interpret its visual content, they do interact with the environment surrounding that video especially on webpages. For users who rely on screen readers due to visual impairments or other disabilities, the structure, layout, and code of the web page hosting your video are essential to ensuring they can access and understand your content.
Here’s how to improve screen reader compatibility and make your entire video experience more inclusive:
- Use accessible video players – Make sure your video player supports keyboard navigation and includes properly labelled controls. Users should be able to play, pause, rewind, or adjust volume without using a mouse. Popular platforms like YouTube and Vimeo have accessibility features, but it’s always worth checking them on different assistive technologies.
- Embed with semantic HTML – Use proper HTML5 <video> tags and ARIA (Accessible Rich Internet Applications) attributes where necessary. This helps screen readers correctly interpret the page structure and locate the video element in the content flow.
- Include transcripts directly on the page – Providing a written transcript of the video’s dialogue, sound effects, and visuals not only benefits screen reader users, but also supports SEO and makes your content accessible to users with low bandwidth or those who prefer reading over watching. Place transcripts close to the video not hidden in downloadable PDFs or separate pages.
- Avoid autoplay by default – Videos that start playing automatically can confuse or overwhelm screen reader users, who may not expect or be able to locate the source of the sound quickly. Always give users control over when the video starts.
- Add descriptive alt text to thumbnails and links – If your video is represented by a thumbnail or clickable image, make sure it includes alternative (alt) text that describes what the video is about. For example, “Watch our product demo: new app features explained in 2 minutes” is more useful than simply “Watch video.”
- Label video links clearly – Use descriptive anchor text like “Watch our accessibility tutorial video” rather than generic phrases like “Click here.” This helps users understand what they’re interacting with and why it matters.
Creating a video isn’t just about the file itself it’s about the full experience, from how users find and play it, to how they navigate the information around it. Designing your video presentation with screen reader compatibility in mind ensures no one is left behind due to a poorly structured page.
Provide Transcripts and Alternative Formats
Transcripts serve multiple accessibility and usability purposes:
- They help users who can’t access audio or visuals
- They’re useful for reviewing content after watching
- They improve SEO and page indexing
Transcripts should include:
- All dialogue
- Sound cues
- Visual scene descriptions (if no audio descriptions are provided)
You can also offer:
- Slide decks with written summaries
- Printable guides or worksheets
- Audio-only versions of the video
These options show consideration for different user needs and preferences.
Choose an Accessible Video Player
The platform you host your video on should support your accessibility goals.
Look for players that:
- Allow caption toggling (closed captions)
- Are keyboard navigable
- Support screen readers
- Allow transcript downloads
- Don’t autoplay without user consent
- Offer accessible controls for play/pause, volume, and progress
Examples of accessible players: YouTube, Vimeo (with Pro), Able Player, and Kaltura.
Test, Review, and Improve
Accessibility isn’t a one-time task or a checkbox you tick at the end of production it’s an ongoing commitment to inclusion. Even with the best intentions and guidelines in place, real accessibility only happens when you actively test, listen, and adapt your content based on real-world use and feedback.
Before you publish a video, make it a standard part of your workflow to review its accessibility across multiple dimensions:
- Watch your video with and without sound – Try watching it with the volume muted to see if the visuals alone still convey the message clearly. Then watch with audio only (without looking at the screen) to ensure the narration and sound cues are understandable without visuals.
- Navigate the hosting page using a screen reader – Test tools like NVDA (Windows), VoiceOver (Mac), or JAWS to experience how screen reader users interact with the page. Pay close attention to whether video controls, links, and descriptions are read out in a logical and helpful order.
- Seek feedback from people with lived experience – There’s no substitute for real user feedback. Invite individuals from diverse accessibility backgrounds (e.g. d/Deaf, blind, neurodivergent users) to review your video and the page it sits on. Their insights can uncover gaps or barriers you might have overlooked.
- Test captions for accuracy, timing, and readability – Captions should appear in sync with the audio, be free from typos, and use correct punctuation. Ensure the font size and contrast are sufficient for readability across different screen sizes and viewing conditions.
- Check colour contrast and visual clarity on multiple devices – Use accessibility tools like contrast checkers and colour blindness simulators to assess whether your visual elements are legible. Test your video on phones, tablets, and desktops to make sure everything scales properly and remains easy to interact with.
Finally, don’t stop there. Accessibility standards and user expectations are constantly evolving. Familiarise yourself with the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) and regularly check for updates or changes to local legal compliance requirements.
By building accessibility reviews into every stage from planning to post-publishing you demonstrate a genuine commitment to inclusive communication. More importantly, you make your content more usable and enjoyable for everyone.
Final Thoughts: Inclusion Begins in Pre-Production
Making your videos accessible doesn’t have to be difficult or expensive it just needs to be intentional. By planning accessibility from the start, you not only avoid costly rework you build better, more inclusive content that respects your entire audience.
Get in touch with our video production company to discover how we can help you craft inclusive, engaging videos designed from script to screen with accessibility at the heart.Let’s make video content that works for every viewer.
