Making Your Legacy Media More Accessible
You’ve got a website full of uncaptioned videos and images, PDFs that don’t meet ISO standards, and a checklist of other legacy media that has to be “fixed.” On a limited budget. And by yesterday, of course. What’s the best strategy for bringing your legacy media up to date?
Let analytics be your guide, says Whitney Quesenbery, accessibility expert and co-author of The Web For Everyone. Which PDFs are downloaded most often? What are the most popular videos? Find out where users go and what they do.
Once you’ve identified key tasks and content, you can explore any existing barriers and address these systematically. While you’re in the process of updating PDFs, for example, you can give users the option to contact you and request a specific PDF in accessible format. This is another source of “street research” that will help you prioritize your work.
Whitney’s advice? Acknowledge the problem. Communicate that you’re working on a solution. And focus your energy and resources on the things that your users are most likely to need.