Embed YouTube videos--the UBCMS has no native player.
Last reviewed: May 24, 2022
We recommend YouTube as a video hosting platform. YouTube is used widely around the world -- the second most searched site after Google.com -- and is reasonably easy to use. In additionn to being free, it provides a good closed captioning service to help satisfy ADA accessibility requirements. The UBCMS Video and Video Galley components allow YouTube videos to be quickly loaded on your pages where they can be played in place by your site visitors.
YouTube aggressively removes videos that do not clearly meet copyright restrictions. Suspect videos may vanish without warning. If you produce YouTube videos, be sure to follow their copyright guidelines. > read more about YouTube copyright
> Consider pulling content from these major university channels
As an alternative to YouTube, consider UB's Panopto video recording software. > embedding Panopto
These components all support YouTube videos.
Alternative text ('alt text') is a short, written description that describes the appearance, content and/or function of an image on a webpage. Adding alt text is a best practice for all your UBCMS images and is required for accessibility so users will understand what they are not seeing.
Purely decorative images (that do not convey content or have a function on the page) can instead be set as "This image does not require Alt text" in some components, which also nullifies alt text that was previously entered.
Alt text is required in these contexts:
* When the image is a link, starts an animation or video, or is a navigational element, alt text should indicate its function, not the image's content (i.e., "watch video ABC" and not "screenshot from video ABC"). Screen readers will treat this image as a standard link.
Alt text can be added to images in Assets. This is required for images that are then used in the Photo Gallery component, while it can also be used as an alternate source for Alt text in some components (e.g. the Photo setting 'Get Alt text from Assets').
Best practice:
Text Over Photo provides an accessible alternative to using images that have embedded text.
> Learn more about the Text Over Photo component.
The user should control carousels, slideshows and video, so they are not confused by unexpected behavior and to provide enough time for them to process each segment.
Best practice:
These recommendations are supported by default in UBCMS carousel, slideshow and video components. Please comply with this best practice if you embed external video or animations.
Videos that automatically popup, autoplay, or loop can be confusing for some users, and will probably annoy everyone in general. It is always best to let the user decide how to interact with your website.
Video must also have controls to start/stop and replay, which are standard for YouTube, which is why we recommend its use.
Best practice: keep the default settings when using the Video component.
All videos on UBCMS websites must have synchronized captions. An additional transcript is optional, but if provided, should be closely associated with the video player. Captions (and transcripts) support those who cannot see or hear your video.
Best practice: captions are most easily added using the automated tools on YouTube, even if the final placement is not in that platform.