Guide: How to produce accessible teaching videos in a higher education context

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Abstract

Teaching videos are an increasingly popular means of conveying knowledge in higher education. In order to ensure that all students have reasonable access to teaching content, the videos must be designed to be accessible to all abilities. A careful planning process that gives stakeholders a say in the thoughtful application of four components: audio description, German Sign Language translation, subtitling and transcription, can ensure accessibility. However, what exactly should be considered and how are the individual components used? The Daten Lesen Lernen für Alle (DaLeLe4All) team has brought together a wide range of experience in the production of accessible videos in this guide, which offers numerous practical tips, as well as providing information not only on the process of planning the audio and visual content but also on adapting and implementing the individual components.

Content

DaLeLe4All project team

(from left to right)
Lea Dammann, Sina Ike, Dr. Alexander Silbersdorff, Dr. Nina-Kristin Meister, Katrin Lux, Thomas Finkbeiner, Kristina Schneider

Authors (alphabetically):

Julia Berginski
has been a research assistant at the Chair of Spatial Data Science and Statistical Learning at the University of Göttingen since 2022. She is responsible for the introductory course in mathematics for students of economics, and in addition assists teaching in mathematics. Since 2023 she has also worked on the TIB project Accessible Mathematics teaching videos for the foundation course.

Lea Maria Dammann has been a research assistant at the University of Göttingen’s Chair of Statistics since 2019. As part of the Daten Lesen Lernen project which was the basis of the DaLeLe4All project, she taught basic statistical concepts and skills to students from all sorts of specialisms.

Andreas Deitmer works as deputy director at the Study Centre for Blind and Visually Impaired Students (BliZ) at the Technische Hochschule Mittelhessen (THM). In this role, together with colleagues at the BliZ, he has for many years successfully advised THM and other universities, public institutions and industrial enterprises on the subject of digital accessibility and studying with health problems. As a blind computer scientist (Master’s) he not only identifies barriers on the Web and in mobile apps from a user’s perspective, he also finds technical solutions. Since October 2021 he has also been working towards his PhD on the integration of digital accessibility in multinational companies within the framework of a cooperative project between THM and the Instituto Universitário de Lisboa (ISCTE-IUL) in Lisbon.

Thomas Albert Finkbeiner, who is himself Deaf and grew up using German Sign Language (DGS) in his parental home, is a Dipl. Sozialarbeiter/Dipl. Sozialpädagoge (FH), certified sign language teacher and sign language interpreter for DGS and International Sign. From 2013 to 2017 he worked at the Magdeburg-Stendal University of Applied Sciences on the sign language interpreting degree programme. Since 2017 he has worked in the Department of German Philology at the University of Göttingen as a DGS teacher. He is committed to accessibility and knowledge transfer in a variety of ways (see e.g. “Sprachkalender zur DGS” and the first bilingual-bimodal series of books in DGS and written German “Deutsche Gebärdensprache und Deaf Communities”).

Sina Ike has been a research assistant at the Chairs of Statistics and Econometrics at the University of Göttingen since 2019. She is responsible for teaching in mathematics here. In addition, she worked on the production of interdisciplinary digital study material for the DataSkills@CIDAS4u project of the Campus-Institut Data Science (CIDAS).

Katrin Lux, the University of Göttingen’s representative for students with disabilities and chronic disease, supports potential and current students with individual counselling and guidance. Institutional effects of the advisory work lie in recognising and naming of regulations that present institutional disadvantages. Her role thus involves overseeing suitable structural changes in higher education, with the aim of creating conditions that allow equal opportunities.

Nina-Kristin Meister wrote her thesis in German linguistics on “Lexical Nonmanuals in German Sign Language”. Since 2017 she has headed the Sign Language Lab and been a research associate in the Department of German Philology at the University of Göttingen. She is actively engaged in promoting accessibility and knowledge transfer in many ways (see e.g. “Sprachkalender zur DGS” and the first bilingual-bimodal series of books in DGS and written German "Deutsche Gebärdensprache und Deaf Communities").

Kristina Schneider, M.A., studied ethnology and gender studies and took her doctorate in ethnology. Since 2021 she has been an associate on the LInK project at the University of Göttingen, where she is responsible for the “Teaching without barriers” subproject. Kristina Schneider advises teachers and promotes structural change to achieve the subproject’s aim of establishing accessibility in digital teaching.

Alexander Silbersdorff heads the Data Literacy work group in the Faculty of Business and Economics at the University of Göttingen, and is responsible for the introductory modules of mathematics and statistics at the faculty. One of his research areas is the analysis of diversity-oriented higher education teaching with the involvement of digital teaching offers and Blended Learning formats.

For their cooperation and support, we would like to thank

and: Thorge Beilfuß, Pia Garske, Latifa Kolo, Daniele Krishnaraj, Lena Steilen, Sam Thomas