Brightcove Player Accessibility

In this topic you will learn about the Brightcove Player accessibility features.

Introduction

Brightcove is committed to accessibility with Brightcove Player and has worked with a third-party accessibility vendor to ensure that Brightcove Player meets the standards set out in the WCAG 2.1 AA accessibility guidelines.

The most recent Brightcove Player tests against the WCAG 2.1 AA standards included the following:

  • Manual assessment using Chrome on Windows 10 and exclusive use of the keyboard
  • Automated tools used including the Deque aXe browser extension & Deque aXe Auditor
  • Assistive technologies employed including the latest version of NVDA

Upon request, Brightcove can provide you with a VPAT (Voluntary Product Accessibility Template). Please contact your account manager or sales contact for a copy of Brightcove's VPAT.

At Brightcove, accessibility is important, and we welcome customer feedback.

Notes on Accessibility

Accessibility is a complex subject and we understand that our customers may have questions about it. The information provided here is for informational purposes only and is not legal advice. You should contact your attorney to obtain advice with respect to any particular question or issue.

What is WCAG?

WCAG is a list of accessibility success criteria to which you can meet.

  • WCAG guidelines are written by the W3C
  • Meeting WCAG success criteria can be achieved in multiple ways
  • Following W3C's guidelines is one way of meeting those criteria

The W3C itself recommends that the only required objective is to meet the criteria, but not how it can be done.

Further reading

Here are some additional resources:

Keyboard controls

Brightcove Player can be controlled using the keyboard. By tabbing to the player controls, the following keys can be used to control and manipulate the player:

  • Big play button - Press Space or Enter to play video.
  • Play button in control bar - Press Space or Enter to toggle between play and pause.
  • Progress bar -
    • Use up or right buttons to jump forward 5 seconds.
    • Use down or left buttons to jump back 5 seconds.
    • Use PageUp button to jump forward 60 seconds.
    • Use PageDown button to jump back 60 seconds.
  • Volume slider - On tab to the volume slider, use the Enter key to mute/unmute the volume. After another tab, you can control the volume level as follows:
    • Use up or right buttons to increase volume.
    • Use down or left buttons to decrease volume.
  • Full screen - Press Space or Enter to toggle between full screen and not full screen.
  • For Captions, Audio Tracks, and Quality Selector keyboard controls, you can access them by hitting Enter to bring up the options, using the up/down keys to move through options, and hitting enter to select an option.

Screen readers

Brightcove Player is compatible with screen readers on desktop browsers as well as iOS and Android devices. Brightcove tests and attempts to resolve issues with:

  • TalkBack on latest Android OS
  • VoiceOver on iOS 12+
  • The latest version of JAWS on Windows with Firefox and Chrome on Windows
  • Mac OS VoiceOver with Safari, Chrome and Firefox

Brightcove Player Accessibility FAQ

Here are some common questions and answers about accessibility when using Brightcove Player.

What version of the player is compliant with WCAG 2.1 AA?

Brightcove's most recent set of tests were validated against player version 6.64.3, with the default skin with the blue progress bar indicator (also known as the Sapphire skin). Brightcove worked with a third-party vendor to ensure an unbiased review.


Is the player skin customizable?

If you run tests and find that the player skin fails on color contrast, is there anything you can do?

Yes! The color scheme is customizable. For details, see the following:


How can customers add a title to the iframe?

The WCAG guidelines require a title attribute when embedding the player via an iframe.

Because the player dynamically loads content from the catalog, it is not possible to give the iframe a meaningful or relevant title before a video is loaded. The player is not able to update the title of the parent iframe element. You can add your own title to the iframe using:

<iframe title="My video title" src="//players.brightcove.net/...">

Are captions present in the embed code?

During an audit you may notice that captions are not present in the embed code (WCAG 2.1 AA Success Criterion 1.2.2).

Brightcove makes caption tracks available for the user. If tracks have been added to the video they are made available to the user once the video has loaded. Similar to the title attribute above, the player cannot know if accompanying captions/text tracks exist until the video details have been returned by the Brightcove backend systems. In this case, the user has the tracks, but the captions are not present in the embed code.


Who can we reach out to with further questions?

If you've run the player through an automated tool, and an item was flagged and it's not included in VPAT or in this FAQ, you can contact Brightcove.

For existing customers, please contact your Brightcove account manager.

For new customers, reach out to the Brightcove sales team.