For example, Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 and Title II of the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 ensure that students with disabilities are given access to services and are eligible for accommodations to meet their needs. Section 504 works in tandem with the Americans With Disabilities Act (ADA) to protect those with disabilities from exclusion and discrimination in educational settings, the workforce and even in their communities. Section 508 of the Rehabilitation Act mandates that federal agencies make information and communications technology accessible to people with disabilities.
Technology and Disability Accommodations
Educational technology is required to meet the federal accessibility regulations that make it easy to navigate for students with disabilities and instructors alike. YuJa is fully compliant with Section 508/VPAT, WCAG, CVAA and abides by FERPA and security regulations.
The YuJa suite of products automates many accessibility features for students, primarily through the Enterprise Video Platform and YuJa Panorama for Accessibility:
- Videos are auto-captioned, making them accessible to deaf and hard-of-hearing students. Auto-captioning creates a word-for-word transcript of a lecture, allowing students to both listen to and read lectures, depending on how they best learn.
- High-quality audio recording and text captioning makes material accessible to students with visual disabilities.
- Live ASR allows live-stream events to be captioned in real-time for viewers to provide improved accessibility to content.
- Alternative text is included for images and video thumbnails to convey meaning to users.
- The Video Platform scales well when text is enlarged up to 200%, such as when used with screen readers.
- The HTML5 media player provides keyboard shortcuts.
- Alternative formats of course material can be generated in HTML, Electronic Braille, EPUB, Audio (Speech-to-Text), High Contrast, and as Tagged PDF files.
YuJa also supports regulations for the 21st Century Communications and Video Accessibility Act with:
- Video Origination: YuJa offers full support for captioning workflows, including automation, of full-length video programming, Internet video clips, and archival video programming.
- Quality Standards: Captioning workflows ensure that captioning meets the quality standards outlined by the FCC for clarity, accuracy, timing, completeness, and placement.
- End-User Controls: Capabilities for modification of captions is included, with tools for end-users to change the text color, opacity, size, font, background color, and window color.
- Live and Near-Live Video Captioning: YuJa supports recorded and live captioning workflows, including for implementation standards provided by the National Captioning Institute, a non-profit organization.
No matter who the learner is or their abilities, YuJa’s products aim to simplify workflows to enable more accessible, usable technology.
