Vimeo is committed to empowering creators of all kinds with the tools they need to succeed with video. Part of that success means offering a fully accessible player that can reach any audience, regardless of their cognitive, visual, or physical abilities. In line with this commitment, Vimeo is excited to share we're in the process of renewing our Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) compliance rating for 2024.
Before we dive in, let's discuss what 'video accessibility' means and its importance to creating video content for all audiences.
So what is video accessibility anyway?
Simply put, video accessibility means that a video has captions, audio description, and a video transcript so that anyone who watches it can understand it’s meaning. A description of the visual information being presented is the essential component of any accessible video.
Another piece of video accessibility to consider is careful use of color, text, and animation to ensure that nothing is inaccessible to visually impaired viewers. Similarly, a video shouldn’t contain excessive ‘flashes’ and bursts of bright color.
Vimeo’s commitment to video accessibility
Vimeo remains committed to providing an equitable viewing experience for all, as outlined in the accessibility measures described below:
Automatic transcription
We’ve enabled automatic closed captioning on all Enterprise VOD content, giving team members the power to search for keywords in any relevant video and find the exact moment they’re looking for, in just seconds. Auto captions are available in English, French, German, Japanese, Korean, Portuguese, and Spanish to users on any paid plans. These captions are enabled by default for Enterprise users.
Live automated closed captions
Vimeo Enterprise and Advanced customers can enable automated closed captions on their live streams. Closed captions on live streams make it possible for those with diverse levels of aural abilities, language comprehension skills, and learning styles to consume and enjoy live content. You can learn more about what they are, and how to implement them, here.
Bonus points!
Vimeo player features:
- Support for subtitles and captions: Vimeo allows creators to either upload their own subtitles and captions or use AI to generate captions in 7 different languages. To turn on captions or subtitles when viewing a video, click the CC button in the player's bottom toolbar.
- Support for multi-audio tracks: Vimeo allows you to include multi-language or descriptive audio, commentary tracks, and more, which means you can further customize your viewer experience and reach more people.
- Higher color contrast: To ensure users of all sight abilities can fully experience videos on Vimeo, our player will now maintain a default color contrast ratio.
- Clearer focus states: For users who rely on their keyboards to navigate, we've added changes that make it clear which element in the player is active at any given time. Users will now see a blue or white box around the active element, with a high color contrast.
- Better support for screen readers: For users who rely on screen readers (e.g. JAWS, NVDA), we ensure that any element in the Vimeo player can be read accordingly.
A note on improving video accessibility
Accessibility creates a sense of belonging by being inclusive. This means giving all individuals the opportunity to participate, in every aspect, to the fullest extent possible. Accessibility is not limited to varying abilities; everyone can benefit when something is accessible. It's a win across the board.
The Vimeo player offers support for captions and subtitles across multiple devices. We're passionate about accessibility, and we're actively working on making all Vimeo products more accessible, too.
For more information on Vimeo’s accessibility features, please review the below help center content:
Adding captions or subtitles to your video
Enabling captions and subtitles in embeds by default
Downloading your video with captions or subtitles
Adding automatic closed captioning for live events
How to manually caption events
