Let's integrate accessibility into our productions

A producer once mentioned to me that "accessibility is just a budget item."

That stuck with me. I felt like that statement really reflects the mindset of producers in my generation. I've had a long career in live TV production, and I'm ashamed to admit that I rarely gave a thought to the accessibility of what I was working on. The only time we mentioned the word "captioning" was if there was a problem with our live captioning feed. I never actually watched the captioning to see if the quality was any good, or how long the lag time was. No one did, actually. Audio description was even further from our collective minds.

Fast forward to today. I've spent the past 6 years working and learning in the accessible media space, so I'm constantly aware of the accessibility of all types of content.

How many of us now prefer to watch our videos with the captions ON? Call it the smart phone effect - we watch so much video on our phones with no sound, that captions are actually

Let's consider a different possibility. What if accessibility is INTEGRATED into the production process? I understand if you're thinking "I'm not sure what that means", and I completely relate - I would have been in the same position 5 years ago.

It's understandable that when you think about the accessibility of your content, your first thought is "that means captioning" - and you'd be right. Of course captioning is one aspect of accessibility in video and film production, but there is so much more to consider.

Pre production:

Production

Post production