Playbook, online course
The request is nearly always captions, and the answer is per module
This is a video product, so the requests concentrate almost entirely on one thing. What makes it awkward is that the library was recorded across several years by different people with different budgets, so the honest answer is not a yes or a no about the course, it is a position module by module.
Why this is not the general answer
The handling pattern for accessibility requests holds across every trade. What follows is the part that does not.
- The request narrows to captions and transcripts far more than it does anywhere else, because the product is hours of somebody talking, and everything else about accessibility is downstream of whether that is readable.
- Machine generated captions and checked captions are both called captions and are not the same thing, and on a course full of specialist vocabulary the automatic version fails precisely on the words the learner came for.
- A live cohort session is a separate problem from a recorded module: captioning it has to be arranged in advance of a fixed date, and a recording published a few days later is not a substitute for somebody who needed to be in the room.
- Transcripts are asked for by learners who are not disabled at all, because a searchable transcript is how somebody finds the part about a topic again, so publishing them answers an accessibility request and a study request in one move.
How it arrives
- are the videos captioned
- are the captions checked or automatic
- can i get transcripts of the modules
- is the live session captioned
- can i have the workbook in a format my screen reader can read
- do you give extra time on the assessment
What has to be indexed for this to work
| What is captioned, stated per module rather than per course | Which modules carry captions, which of those were checked by a person, and which have transcripts. A single sentence about the course is wrong for part of the library, and it is the part somebody is about to pay to reach. |
|---|---|
| How captioning is arranged for a live session | Whether it is available, how much notice is needed, and who to tell. Notice is the whole answer here, because a request made the day before a cohort session is a request nobody can meet. |
| What downloadable material is available as, and what it is not | Whether workbooks and handouts exist in a form assistive software can read, or whether they are flattened pages that cannot be. Say which, because a buyer who assumes wrongly finds out in module one. |
| Adjustments on assessments, and who agrees them | Whether extra time or an alternative format exists, what has to be asked for and when. This is a decision by a person rather than a fact about the platform, and it needs a named route with a response period. |
The reply
Captioning is not uniform across the library, because the modules were recorded over several years, so the accessibility page lists what is captioned and which of those captions were checked rather than automatic [1]. Transcripts are covered on the same page, and where they exist they are downloadable. Live sessions are arranged separately and need notice, which is set out there too [2]. I cannot test anything, check how a particular module behaves with your software or agree an adjustment on an assessment. If you tell me your name, an email and which module or session you mean, it goes to the person who handles this.
It gives the reason the answer is uneven before giving the answer, because an inconsistent library sounds like neglect until somebody explains it was built over time. Separating checked captions from automatic ones is the distinction the learner is really asking about. And it refuses to characterise how anything behaves with assistive software, since that is a test result rather than a document.
Where it stops
The trigger. Any request for captioning on a specific session, for material in another format, for an assessment adjustment, or any report that something cannot be used.
This needs a person rather than a page, and live sessions need notice. Leave your name, an email, and which module or session it is about, and it will go across today.
It stops answering before it guesses, says who will pick it up, and asks for the one thing that makes a reply possible. Nothing about it reads as a dead end.
Never say this here
Out of bounds
- Never say the course is accessible, or fully captioned, when the library is uneven and your own page says so.
- Never describe automatically generated captions as captions without saying which they are.
- Never state that a module works with a particular screen reader or magnifier, because that is something somebody tested rather than something you published.
- Never promise an adjustment, a transcript or captioning for a specific session, since only a person can agree to arrange it.
Questions
- Our older modules are not captioned. Should it admit that?
- Yes, module by module. A buyer who is told the truth before paying can decide; a buyer who is told everything is captioned discovers otherwise in the first hour and is entitled to be angry about it, usually inside the refund window and publicly afterwards.
- Are transcripts worth producing if we already caption?
- They answer a different need. Captions serve somebody watching; a transcript serves somebody searching, skimming or reading instead of watching. Publishing both also removes a recurring pre sale question, which is the part that shows up in the inbox.
- Can it arrange captioning for a live session?
- No. It arranges nothing and books nothing. It can say what notice is needed and take the request as a message, which is why the notice period has to be published, or somebody will ask on the morning of the session and be disappointed by a rule they never saw.
Keep reading
- Everything for a online courseWhat is included, how long access lasts, refund and cooling off rights, and the honest limit that it cannot see a learner's own progress.
- Handling accessibility requests in generalTwo different things arrive as one message. A published accessibility statement answers the first. The second is a request, and it needs a person.
- Paid on a Sunday night, and now whatWhere to start, how much of a week it needs, and getting live session times into a calendar in the right time zone.
- Asked before buying, and a wrong answer becomes a refundA tablet at home, a locked down work laptop, a phone on a commute. What to publish before purchase rather than after the refund window.
- The sales page is fine and the course will not loadThe page that sells and the platform that serves fail separately. What may be said when a session starts in an hour.
Try it on your own material
Upload a document or point it at your site, paste one line of HTML, then ask it something only your business could answer.