Video Accessibility Remediation

307 videos audited for Ontario's accessibility deadline, and the budget focused on the ones people still watched.

Context

Ontario's accessibility law, the Accessibility for Ontarians with Disabilities Act, set a deadline of August 31, 2024 for the ministry's published videos. The Ministry of Labour, Immigration, Training and Skills Development had 307 videos going back to 2012, spread across YouTube, Facebook, Vimeo and the intranet.

My role

• Starting in August 2023, audited all 307 videos: 146 on YouTube, 102 on Facebook, 44 on Vimeo and 15 on the intranet.
• Recommended an action for each one (remediate with described audio, archive or remove, or set to private) based on views and how current the message was.
• Covered the French versions under the French Language Services Act.
• Wrote the remediation plan and a vendor guide that was shared with other ministries.
• Advised 7 divisions on costs and keep-or-cut decisions, working with senior leaders, vendors and French Language Services, and kept leaders updated directly and through my manager.

Outcome

• Archived or removed 186 videos (61%), most of them low-view with outdated messages, so the budget went to the 57 videos people were still watching, such as occupational health and safety content.
• Another 50 were already compliant, and the ministry met the August 31, 2024 deadline.
• Remediated videos had a median of 3,192 views, compared with 278 for the archived ones.

307

videos audited

61%

archived or removed

57

remediated with described audio

50

already compliant

7

divisions advised

On time

for the August 31, 2024 deadline

Ministry videos dated 2012 to 2020. Project ran August 2023 to August 2024. The image shows the outcomes in proportion: blue tiles with CC and AD badges were remediated, white tiles with checks were already compliant, locked tiles were set to private, and faded tiles were archived or removed.