For multimedia content, Duke will use Section 508 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973, as amended, as its preferred standard.

All training and informational video and “multimedia productions” which “support the agency's mission”, regardless of format, that contain speech or other audio information necessary for the comprehension of the content, shall be open or closed captioned. – Source

Videos on Tier 1 and Tier 2 websites

Effective November 1, 2017, any multimedia content embedded on Tier 1 or 2 website must be accurately captioned.

Duke’s captioning guidelines do not allow pure machine captioning or automated captioning for your media content. Captioning must be reviewed/edited/created by a human being.

Videos on all other Duke websites

If the website is not a Tier 1 or Tier 2 website we still strongly encourage you to caption all your videos. The minimum requirement for captioning videos in this category is the following:

If the video fulfills all five criteria below it needs to be captioned in a timely manner.

  • Publicly available and embedded on a Duke website
  • Supports the organization's mission
  • It is a production (e.g., it is not simply raw video footage)
  • Is informational or provides training
  • Audio is essential for understanding

** If a video does not meet the criteria above a person still may request an accommodation. **

As stated before, all videos on Tier 1 or Tier 2 websites must be captioned. For videos that are not on a Tier you can use the following examples to determine if your video needs to be captioned.

Example:

The video “A Tour of Duke University Chapel” embedded on a Duke website.

  • Publicly available and embedded on a Duke website = Yes
  • Supports the organization's mission = yes
  • It is a production (e.g., it is not simply raw video footage) = yes
  • Is informational or provides training = yes
  • Needs audio for understanding = yes

This video requires captioning.

Example:

The video “Duke University School of Medicine Match Day 2017” embedded on a Duke website.

  • Publicly available and embedded on a Duke website = Yes
  • Supports the organization's mission = yes
  • It is a production (e.g., it is not simply raw video footage), = yes
  • Is informational or provides training = yes
  • Needs audio for understanding = yes

This video requires captioning.

Example of a video that requires captions but you do not have access to add captions

If an uncaptioned video that meets the five captioning criteria cannot be captioned do not embed it in your site. Link to the site because it may have important information that makes the video accessible.

For instance, a news station interviews a person about the departments' mission but the news station does not caption their videos, do not embed that video.  If the news station’s page has a text equivalent alternative, link to that instead of embedding the video. If the video was embedded in a site, it would lose its text equivalent alternative.

A news story “He wants to believe: Doctor searching for rare ALS reversals” embedded on a Duke website.

  • Publicly available and embedded on a Duke website = Yes
  • Supports the organization's mission = yes
  • It is a production (e.g., it is not simply raw video footage) = yes
  • Is informational or provides training = yes
  • Needs audio for understanding = yes

This video requires captioning, but it should not be embedded on a Duke website.

Example:

A video of “The Duke University Blue Devil Mascot Through the Years” embedded on a not Tier 1 or Tier 2 Duke website.

  • Publicly available and embedded on a Duke website = yes
  • Supports the organization's mission = no
  • It is a production (e.g., it is not simply raw video footage) = yes
  • Is informational or provides training = yes
  • Needs audio for understanding = no

This video does not require captioning.

Example:

Silly video “Duke University "Blue Devil" Mascot Tryouts” but not embedded on a Duke website

  • Publicly available and embedded on a Duke website = no
  • Supports the organization's mission = no
  • It is a production (e.g., it is not simply raw video footage) = yes
  • Is informational or provides training = no
  • Needs audio for understanding = yes

This video does not require captioning.

Violations

If you find an uncaptioned video on a website that does not follow Duke's Guidelines report the issue.