Cablecast Accessibility: What to Know About WCAG & ADA
Introduction
Starting in Cablecast 7.9, we've updated the Internet Channels feature to align with Web Content & Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) and the Adults with Disabilities Act (ADA). These improvements help you deliver content to your communities while ensuring compliance.
We Are Not Your Lawyer
This article is intended to be a guide and a reference to Cablecast and how we are applying WCAG in accordance with ADA requirements to our public Internet Channels.
We recommend that you partner with legal counsel or a web accessibility specialist to have a better understanding of what requirements need to be met by your organization.
WCAG? ADA? What's the Difference?
Web Content Accessibility Guidelines or WCAG, refer to a set of international guidelines that make digital content accessible.
The Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 or ADA, is a civil rights law that prohibits discrimination based on disability.
How Are These Two Related?
The ADA requires state and local governments to conform with WCAG for web content and mobile applications.
When Do I Need to be Compliant?
Source: New Rule on the Accessibility of Web Content and Mobile Apps Provided by State and Local Governments
How Can Cablecast Help Me?
Cablecast's Internet Channels are the best way to share your Live & VOD content with your audience. Since these sites are publicly available to your viewers, we've made changes in Cablecast 7.9 so that they are WCAG 2.1 compliant in accordance with ADA.
Cablecast 7.9 Required
In order to utilize Accessible Internet Channels, you will need a free update to Cablecast 7.9. You can request your update by submitting a case at support.cablecast.tv or send an email to support@cablecast.tv
Is My Site Compliant?
There are a number of free accessibility evaluation tools that you can use when checking to see if your site is compliant. Please note that automated accessibility compliance tools do not catch all WCAG guideline issues. While these tools are useful for identifying technical and code-based errors, they have limitations.
Note: these free tools are not specific to Cablecast and can be used on most websites.
Resources
Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG)
Outlines and discusses everything you need to know about WCAG
New Rule on the Accessibility of Web Content and Mobile Apps Provided by State and Local Governments
Includes more information about the Americans with Disabilities Act
VPAT
A Voluntary Product Accessibility Template (VPAT) is a document that describes how well a product meets accessibility standards.
Cablecast's results can be viewed here: Accessibility Conformance Report
You can submit a case to support if you have any additional questions or feedback!
Frequently Asked Questions
As a reminder, we recommend that you partner with your legal counsel to have a better understanding of what requirements need to be met by your organization.
Q: Will all local government meetings be required to have Closed Captions? Live and/or playback?
- A: The WCAG mandates that all content must have closed captions to be WCAG 2.1 AA.
- Source: https://www.ada.gov/resources/2024-03-08-web-rule/
Q: We have years of videos on our Cablecast VOD. Do you have an easy solution for captioning those old videos without bringing the original old videos back to our playback server?
- A: Consult with your legal team. The ADA mentions if you have a specific “Archive” section of your site then it may not require captions.
- Source: https://www.ada.gov/resources/2024-03-08-web-rule/
Q: Is descriptive audio for the sight impaired a part of the WCAG 2.1 AA specification?
- A: Descriptive Audio is required for WCAG 2.1 AA for pre-recorded content.
Q: Are we required to caption content we didn’t produce?
- A: You may need to caption content that you share on your website to remain WCAG compliant.
- Source: https://www.w3.org/WAI/media/av/captions/
