Skip to main content
School of Medicine IT

Video

Videos can help explain complex topics, showcase your programs, and improve engagement, but only if they are added accessibly and efficiently. This page outlines how to plan, host, caption, and embed accessible videos on School of Medicine websites.

1. Plan Ahead!

Creating videos, and properly captioning them, takes more time than most editors expect. Plan video production and captioning needs early in your project timeline.

2. Create the Video

Follow standard best practices for creating high-quality video.

No patient Protected Health Information (PHI) may appear in any UNC video.

3. Choose a Video Host

Do not upload video files to your Media Library. Video files are large (often larger that the 64 MB limit in the Media Library), slow down your site, and lack accessible playback controls.

Instead, upload videos to a streaming platforms like Panopto, YouTube, and Vimeo. These platforms are recommended because they:

  • Support caption uploads and editing
  • Work across devices
  • Provide accessible player controls

Panopto

Panopto is UNC’s centrally supported video hosting platform, free for campus use. Learn more in the Panopto documentation.

4. Make the Video Accessible (Required)

All prerecorded videos on UNC websites must be accessible under federal and UNC accessibility standards.

Accessibility includes:

  • Captions (required)
  • Audio descriptions (required only when visual information is not spoken)
  • Transcripts (recommended for videos; required for audio-only content)

4.1Captions (Required)

Captions display spoken dialogue and important non-speech audio such as music, laughter, doors closing and background sound cues.

Caption Benefits

  1. Required for deaf or hard-of-hearing users
  2. Helpful in sound-sensitive environments or when users have their computers muted.
  3. Improves SEO
  4. Improve comprehension by native and foreign language speakers. A study showed 80% of people who use video captions don’t even have a hearing disability.
  5. Compensate for poor audio quality or background noise within a video.

Caption Requirements

Captions must be:

  • Accurate — machine captions must be corrected
  • Synchronized with the audio
  • Complete — no missing dialogue. Filler words like “Um” or “uh” can be omitted.
  • Descriptive — include essential sound cues (like background music, or cheering) in brackets
  • Identify speakers in brackets or parenthesis.

Machine-generated captions must be reviewed and corrected.

Captioning Support

UNC’s Digital Accessibility Office (DAO) provides:

4.2 Transcripts (Recommended for Video, Required for Audio-Only)

A transcript is a written version of everything spoken in the video. They are required for all audio-only files, like podcasts or voice recordings. They can also accompany videos because they help:

  • Search engines index your content
  • Users who prefer reading
  • Individuals on slow connections
  • Users needing to search content

4.3 Audio Descriptions (Required Only When Needed)

Add audio description when key visual content is not spoken aloud. If narration already describes what is shown, additional audio descriptions are not required.

An example video with audio descriptions can be found on the DAO website.

5. Embed or Link to the Video

You can either link to the video or embed it.

Link to the Video

Use standard link methods to create a text link to the video. See our How to Add Links documentation for instructions.

Embed the Video (Most Common)

Code from whichever video hosting environment you use can be copied and then pasted, or “embedded,” into a page or post. That embed code (usually an <iframe>) will display the video on your web page. We have documentation on a variety of ways to embed video:

Do Not Autoplay Videos (Required)

  • Autoplay can be disorienting, especially for users with cognitive or vestibular disabilities.
  • People using screen readers navigate by listening, so any sound playing when the page loads will interfere with their experience.
  • Audio or video should only be initiated by the user.

Add a Title Attribute (Required)

All iFrame embed code must include a descriptive title so screen readers can identify the video. If the embed code dose not contain a title attribute that describes the video, one needs to be added.

  • Panopto’s default embed code does not include a title, so editors must add it manually. View the Panopto documentation for instructions.
  • YouTube embed code has a default title of “YouTube video player.” This needs to be updated to accurately reflect the content of the video. View the YouTube documentation for instructions.
  • Example: <iframe src=”…” title=”Interview with Dr. Lee about residency training”></iframe>