How Cultural Institutions Can Build Access
Use cases & solutions to promote inclusive experiences
Introduction
Taking measures to offer inclusive environments and accessible experiences isn’t just a legal imperative for cultural institutions. It’s the right thing to do.
Improving access is an intelligent way to expand your organization’s reach to new communities, locally and internationally. Collecting organizations are wise to incorporate accessibility with digitizing assets as they preserve, protect, and restore these important archives and collections.
Verbit offers expertise in accessibility for the cultural sector, including galleries, museums, libraries, archives, performing arts facilities and other cultural institutions. With Verbit’s specialized solution and support, cultural organizations can better serve their communities, including their own staff members.
Accessibility
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The Americans with Disabilities Act sets accessibility requirements for employers and “places of public accommodation,” which includes museums and libraries. Additionally, Section 508 of The Rehabilitation Act of 1973 may apply to federal government-operated organizations, such as The Library of Congress. That law requires specific online accessibility standards. Section 504 of the same Act can impact institutions that receive federal funding, and state-specific laws may also extend accessibility standards. Verbit’s accurate captioning, transcription and audio description solutions can help the cultural sector meet or exceed these legal requirements. |
Explore methods & solutions to promote access and inclusion in the cultural sector, including:
How the Cultural Sector partners with Verbit:
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Digitizing Analog CollectionsA. Preserving “at-risk” collectionsB. Offering access to oral historiesC. Simplifying research |
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Adding Accessibility to “Born-Digital” AssetsA. Video and audio collectionsB. Youtube videos and online contentC. Training Videos |
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Creating Inclusive Live EventsA. Webinars and lecturesB. Live virtual toursC. Conference calls and meetings |
Defining Verbit’s Solutions
The Maturity Model for the Cultural Sectors
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Digitizing Analog Collections |
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Preserving “at-risk” collections |
Offering access to oral histories |
Simplifying research |
| Chemical reactions cause older film assets to degrade over time, putting them at risk of loss.Institutions convert them to digital formats, Verbit can add accessibility features, like captions, as part of the process.Verbit supports these efforts for the world’s largest library, the Library of Congress. |
The Smithsonian Archives of American Art is one of many institutions that collects oral histories. Their collection allows artists to tell their stories in their own words and voices.Add captions and audio descriptions to video and transcribe audio to make them accessible to patrons. |
Verbit’s searchable transcripts don’t just support accessibility efforts, they also make research easier for everyone.With a searchable transcript, researchers can enter a search term, and find specific audio and video files. Additionally, they can locate particular sections within files. |
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Adding Accessibility to “Born-Digital” Assets |
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Video and audio
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YouTube videos and online content |
Training videos |
| All institutions are continuously producing digital assets. As a part of best practices, these should include captions, transcriptions and audio descriptions to be accessible.Verbit has scalable solutions that allow repositories to tackle major collections and backlogs with bulk uploading and quick turnaround time on multiple files. Verbit also guarantees 99% accuracy. |
The British Museum’s “Curator’s Corner”1 is a YouTube channel with more than 500K subscribers. The channel gives audiences behind-the-scenes glimpses of the museum.As cultural organizations create channels to connect with audiences around the world, prioritizing captioning and audio descriptions in their videos embraces millions of new viewers and subscribers |
The ADA requires that libraries and museums offer accessibility solutions for patrons and employees. 74% of professionals2 who train employees use video as a teaching tool, so adding captions to this content is critical.Verbit supports employee accessibility efforts and helps cultural institutions meet their legal obligations with their teams, not just their patrons. |
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Creating Inclusive Live Events |
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Webinars and lectures |
Live virtual tours |
Conference calls and meetings |
| Cultural organizations are hosting virtual and hybrid events more than ever.Verbit ’s real-time captioning ensures that people who are navigating disabilities can attend cultural webinars and online lectures.Verbit can cover multiple simultaneous live events so professionals at cultural venues don’t struggle to find an available captioner. |
The National Constitution Center hosts in person and virtual tours that dive into early US history.Many other institutions are taking advantage of virtual tours as a way to grow their online communities and serve more members of the public.Offering solutions for inclusivity ensures that everyone has an opportunity to enjoy these online tours equitably. |
According to the American Alliance of Museums3, one way to improve overall museum accessibility is to hire and include people with disabilities on staff, committees, and boards. They are more likely to identify accessibility issues and offer solutions to better accommodate visitors.Providing captions for meetings will improve all employees’ engagement while helping to meet the needs of employees’ disabilities, known or unknown. |
Defining Verbit’s Solutions
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Captioning |
Transcription |
Audio Description |
| Captioning is the process of converting audio content into text and displaying it on screen or on a nearby monitor.Verbit provides captioning for recorded videos, live broadcasts, virtual event live streams, films, podcasts and more. With a 99.5% accuracy rate, Verbit’s captions provide an equitable experience to those who rely on them. |
Transcription is the process of listening to audio, video or live speech and converting it to text in the same language. Word-forword transcription captures speakers’ every word. Producing transcripts of videos, interviews, testimonials, events and guest lectures can be helpful for referencing, research and note taking. Transcripts are also essential for legal purposes as they can provide an admissible, verbatim record. Transcripts can accompany audio or video files to make them searchable and improve SEO as well. |
Audio description is when a speaker adds verbal descriptions to provide context for all of the visual images in a video. AST offers two versions of audio description:Standard: The speaker adds description during breaks in the video’s original audioExtended: Offers audiences more context and the original video pauses to allow more in-depth descriptions |
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Supports individuals who
are deaf, hard of hearing, have diverse learning styles, are non-native speakers and those viewing with the sound off |
Supports individuals who
are Deaf, hard of hearing and all others, including researchers who can benefit from more interactive ways to search content & videos |
Supports individuals who
are blind or have low vision for all videos, as well as materials like home movies and oral histories |
The Maturity Model for Cultural Sector
Explore how your museum, library, archive or gallery can move from basic compliance to proactively create inclusive experiences for everyone
