Audio descriptions are spoken narrations that describe key visual elements of a video such as actions, settings, or on-screen text, making the content accessible to blind or visually impaired audiences. This article discusses how to manually create an extended audio description and add it to your video in My Media.
1. Click the "My Media" link from the global navigation [1].
My Media in Canvas can also be accessed in the course navigation or by clicking the Account link in the Global Navigation and selecting the My Media link that is listed in the fly-out window. For more information, visit the How to access My Media in Canvas guide.
2. Click the Pencil icon [2] next to the video you want to add the audio description to.
3. Download the WEB VTT template file below. This will be uploaded to your video's caption editor to create the audio description text template.
4. Select the Captions tab [3] and click Add extended audio description [4].
5. In the window that appears, upload the WEB VTT template file [5]. Fill out the Language, Accuracy and Label fields [6]. Click Save [7].
6. Click Edit Captions [8].
7. In the pull-down menu at the top of the page, select the label for your audio description [9].
8. Add time codes and audio description text.
Timecode format: Use hours:minutes:seconds,milliseconds (00:00:54,000)
Click the play button [1] in the media player and pause when you come to a moment that needs to be described.
Click the start timecode [2] and enter the timecode from the paused video [3].
Select the end timecode [4] and enter a value two seconds later than the start timecode. Enter your description in the field to the right [5]. To add additional descriptions, hover your mouse over the row and click Add audio description [6]. Repeat these steps as needed.
Click Save [7] once you have added all your audio descriptions.
9. Once audio descriptions have been added to the video, viewers will be able to enable the descriptions by selecting the AD button [1] at the bottom of the video player and clicking Extended Audio Description [2].
