Enghouse Mediasite’s Commitment to Global Accessibility in Video Learning

Simple. Reliable. Flexible. 

These are the benchmarks that we continuously strive to meet with the Enghouse Mediasite platform and the solutions it enables. But we understand that simple, reliable, and flexible can mean different things to different people. So today, in honor of Global Accessibility Awareness Day (GAAD), the Enghouse Mediasite team is making a point of reflecting on and reaffirming our commitment to global accessibility as it pertains to those key benchmarks.  

Enghouse Mediasite’s Holistic Approach to Global Accessibility 

Steve Krug once said, “The one argument for accessibility that doesn’t get made nearly often enough is how extraordinarily better it makes some people’s lives. How many opportunities do we have to dramatically improve people’s lives just by doing our job a little better?” Being accessible is about being aware of different users’ needs and working to bring equity to the digital world. This awareness and commitment to inclusion is the goal of GAAD, a global event that shines a light on digital access and inclusion for people with disabilities. Over one billion people worldwide have disabilities or impairments, including visual, hearing, motor, and cognitive impairments. At Enghouse Mediasite, we embrace the need to ensure that all users – including those with disabilities or impairments – can access the full spectrum of capabilities that our products offer. Enghouse Mediasite strives to not only comply with accessibility requirements, but to be at the forefront of global accessibility in enterprise video solutions. In addition to offering the standard accessibility options of captions for video, transcripts, and audio description tracks, Enghouse Mediasite is the only provider to offer such accessible features as light/dark/high contrast UI themes, the option to switch system fonts and caption fonts to a font more friendly to users with Dyslexia, workflows designed around keyboard shortcuts, and extensive adoption of QR codes to enable easier access to videos. 

Enghouse Mediasite places such a high value on global accessibility that we have carved out a permanent section of our overall product roadmap for accessibility improvements. Some of the long-range features we are looking at include generating ASL video captions for content, translating captions/transcripts and spoken audio into other languages, and using AI to generate audio description tracks. All of these are well beyond WCAG standards. 

High Standards on Documentation and Transparency 

One way that the Enghouse Mediasite team demonstrates our commitment to global accessibility is by publishing Voluntary Product Accessibility Template (VPAT) documents for all of our products. VPATs show exactly how we measure up against industry standards including the newest Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.2 standards, as well as compliance with Section 508/ADA, AODA, and EN 301 549 regulatory mandates. VPATs help our customers ensure compliance with legal accessibility requirements, but they also reflect our commitment to transparency as we work to enhance the accessibility of our products. The most current versions of our VPATs can be found here.  

We also believe that when it comes to accessibility, the work is never finished. Enghouse Mediasite is currently going through a third-party audit to ensure we are maintaining the highest levels of accessibility in our product. We are also working on globalizing Enghouse Mediasite UI and transcription into even more languages, which is making the product accessible to more people. We envision and strive to have every video have captions, transcripts, and audio descriptions in every necessary language. 

Take Control of Your Video Learning Capabilities with Enghouse Mediasite

At Enghouse Mediasite, we measure our products against ambitious standards, including and especially when it comes to accessibility, and we will continue to proactively seek opportunities to enhance the global accessibility of our products. That is our pledge to you, and our small contribution to the spirit of GAAD.  

If you’re ready to experience a simple, reliable, and flexible learning solution, we invite you to schedule a call with one of our experts! Learn more about Enghouse Mediasite and our commitment to furthering global accessibility by clicking the link below!