When creating a video or a recording, there are a few specific things to keep in mind. First we’ll talk about colors and contrast, this can also be applicable when presenting in front of an in-person class as well.
For colors, we need to work with color blind friendly palettes. According to colourblindawareness.org, roughly 8% of the population has some sort of color blindness. Out of a class of 30, chances are 2 or more of your students will be distinctly affected by the colors you choose to use in your visuals or clothing you wear in your videos or class recordings.
Avoid using bright or neon colors. They can quickly overwhelm anyone’s sight causing eye fatigue and headaches. There is no perfect colors to choose unless you do have a student with a disclosed color blindness. Avoiding the colors above, choosing colors that are opposite each other on the color wheel, and not using color alone to break up information are the best practices you can do for all of your students.
Avoid using just color to distinguish information. Example, don’t make red sentences the bad examples while green sentences are the good examples. For a student who can’t see red or green traditionally, it can be very difficult to tell these two apart. Use different font, bold vs. italic, or two columns to distinguish the point you are conveying. For visual learning, strong distinct graphics help commit the information to memory as well.
Contrast is important. Regardless of the color you choose, high contrast ensures your audience can make out the font or visuals you’re using. Choosing colors that are opposite on the color wheel ensures a strong contrast. If you are a presenter who uses a lot of hand gestures, make sure to wear colors that contrast your skin tone to help make your gestures stand out.
Following these principles will help your videos or class recordings be more accessible to students with color blindness, but also make it easier for all of your students as these color choices are less taxing on everyone’s eyes. Making it easier to stay focused and engaged longer.
Avoid flashing content, animated graphics or flashing video. These can get students attention, but can also be distracting or causing issues for some students. The Bureau of Internet Accessibility’s guideline is to keep any flashing content to three flashes or less during any one second period.
Finally, we need to make sure we’re captioning videos we’re planning on re-using. Any video or recording you plan to use in the future needs to be captioned. This ensures your video meets any future accommodations needs of your students, but captions are also useful for everyone. Your audience may not be able to watch your video with the audio on (such as using a public computer in a library), the surrounding environment may be too loud to hear the video, or some students just remember information more effectively when they read the information instead of hearing it.
Knowing your video will be captioned, make sure to leave some space at the bottom of your visuals so the captions won't overlap any important information.
Writing your script is a whole topic on it’s own. When looking at your script related to accessibility, make sure you pause between the topics you’re covering or the points you’re making. Giving a short pause gives your audience the chance to reflect on what they just heard, take notes, or easily re-watch that section to make sure they caught all the needed information.
Enunciate your words, speak a little slower then you would in person, and make sure to repeat yourself or spell out keywords in your visuals.
When you're setting up to record your video, having your camera properly positioned can be a key element. Some viewers may use reading lips or watching mouth movement to assist with understanding what they are hearing. To help ensure your audience can clearly see you, make sure there isn't a window or a bright light behind you. A bright light behind you will cause the camera to focus on the light source and make you show up as a silhouette. Zoom the camera in and try to keep it eye level.
Keep all of these ideas in mind while creating your videos or a class recording to help create an open and welcoming classroom for any student by having accessible resources ready to go.
