Shaw Trust Accessibility Services ensures all aspects of your digital service are accessible. One important component of this is assistance with your media services.

Our Media Services are provided by an experienced team of technical experts who assist in three key areas:

  1. Document conversion,
  2. Transcripts and captioning, and
  3. Image adaptation

However you choose to present information, we can support you to make it accessible.

Document Conversion

PDF and Microsoft Word documents are not inherently accessible. However, it is possible to present them in an accessible format. This means that users with a wide range of disabilities and impairments can access and read the documents.

Some of the most common issues with PDFs and Word documents relate to the use of screen readers. The documents contain barriers to the effective use of this kind of adaptive technology. Keyboard only users also often experience problems when attempting to access these kinds of documents.

The Shaw Trust Accessibility Services team provides information and guidance to support your staff team in making such documents accessible. We share our knowledge with your team so you can implement accessible practices in future – essentially we put the power directly in your hands.

Transcripts and Captioning

Video and audio content needs to have a textual (text only) alternative in order to make it accessible to users who are hard of hearing or deaf. This is usually in the form of a transcript, captions or both. Our highly skilled team can provide professional transcription and captioning services for all video and audio media that your digital service needs.

A transcript provides a complete record of information presented. Closed captions are like an advanced form of subtitles, designed to be presented at the same time as the spoken words. While subtitles usually cover only dialogue, closed captions include the full range of audio information, including speaker IDs, sound effects and non-speech elements.

These services ensure that the information you present in video and audio format is accessible to all users.

Did you know?

There are 11 million people with hearing loss across the UK – that’s around one in six of us. (Source: Action on Hearing Loss)

1 in 4 deaf people have quit their job due to discrimination (source Deaf Jobseeker and Employee Experience Survey)

Image Adaptation

Not all images are accessible to all viewers. Some users may not be able to see the images. Others may not be able to interpret what the images are supposed to convey. As such, it’s important to ensure that Alternative Text is available for all images that you use on your web platform.

Shaw Trust Accessibility Services staff can work with your staff team to ensure that all images on your website are fully accessible. As well as addressing issues with existing images, we also share our knowledge with your in-house staff to ensure that you retain the knowledge of how to present accessible images for any future additions to the site.

Did you know?

There are 1.87 million people in the UK living with sight loss that has a significant impact on their daily lives

  • Only one in four registered blind or partially sighted people of working age is in employment.

(Source: RNIB Employment Status and Sight Loss Report 2017)

Please contact the Shaw Trust Accessibility Services team today for further details.