Accessible Media Player

Playing video in Silverlight is great, but what about viewers who have a hearing impairment? Not important? The World Health Organization (WHO) would beg to differ. According to their 2005 estimates, “278 million people worldwide have moderate to profound hearing loss in both ears.” That’s almost 17% of the world Internet population.

So you should really think about how to address viewers who are Deaf or hard of hearing. One way to do this is by using closed captions (aka “subtitles for the Deaf and hard of hearing”) in your videos. This tutorial by Sean Hayes in our Accessibility Business Unit describes how to implement closed captions in Silverlight media.