Media Player Accessibility: Summary of Insights from Interviews & Focus Groups

Researchers conducted 13 interviews and focus groups with 37 individuals, primarily at the 2017 CSUN Assistive Technology Conference, to develop a better understanding of how persons with disabilities interact with video players. Insights that emerged include the following: (1) Screen reader users need better ways to seek to a new point in the media; a text input field might offer an effective solution; (2) Screen reader users prefer human-narrated audio description over synthesized speech, but if the latter is deployed, using screen readers to read the description text is a problematic method; (3) Screen reader users need access to captions and subtitles; (4) In order for a synchronized sign language window to be effective, users should be able to control its size, position, and opacity so they can place it in the perfect position relative to the video; (5) Having too many controls adversely affects usability, but there is no agreement as to which controls are expendable. One possible approach to address this problem is to offer users the ability to add/remove controls within Preferences. A recurring theme in the discussions is that of user preferences. Individuals should be able to customize their interface to best meet their unique needs.