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  • Vimeo - Still Not A Viable Web Video Solution For Higher Education

    By Eric Stoller February 6, 2011 8:00 pm EST

    I remember when I first watched a video on Vimeo. The video player was aesthetically pleasing and there were all sorts of wonderful videos to watch. I even purchased a Vimeo Plus account (enhanced features for a minimal fee) and started uploading my own videos to the site. I was, and still am, a fan of Vimeo as a great place to find fascinating web videos.

    However, there is a major flaw with Vimeo and it has to do with accessibility. Vimeo does not offer any type of closed caption solution for uploaded videos. According to a 3-month-old post on the Vimeo forums, captioning is on the way, but a deadline has not been released. I'm skeptical. Vimeo has been without a caption/subtitle solution for a very long time. In fact, when I wrote about their lack of closed captions in 2009, their response was less than stellar.

    How is this relevant to higher education? Well, for starters, accessible videos are an ethical mandate for all who create video content. We owe it to our various constituencies to create content that all can access. This means embedding videos that have captions.

    When Brown University launched their new homepage design in September 2010, they used Vimeo for their featured videos. In December, I noticed that Brown University had switched from using non-captioned Vimeo videos to a more homegrown / captionable solution using the popular JW Player. Brown did the right thing by switching from Vimeo to an accessible solution.

    Similar to Brown, Portland State University has started using Vimeo for video features on their homepage. It is my hope that PSU will follow Brown's lead and switch their videos to a web video solution that allows for closed captions / subtitles. To be fair, I didn't notice that they were using Vimeo until January. Perhaps PSU is looking into alternatives to Vimeo.

    Fortunately, there are alternatives to using Vimeo. The JW Player that Brown uses is a great solution. YouTube offers terrific captioning functionality.

    I truly hope that Vimeo will deliver captioning / subtitle functionality to their users this year. We've been waiting for a very long time.

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Comments on Vimeo - Still Not A Viable Web Video Solution For Higher Education

  • Thanks!
  • Posted by Jennifer G. on February 7, 2011 at 12:15pm EST
  • Thanks for this post Eric. It's helpful to have someone in the "mainstream" educating technology folks about accessibility issues, as it is often an afterthought for most people who do not have a disability or who do not work in the field.

    In addition to "an ethical mandate" it is a legal mandate under Americans with Disabilities Act, Section 504, and 508 that colleges and universities provide access to programs and services to persons with disabilities.

  • Posted by Corey B. on February 7, 2011 at 2:00pm EST
  • I agree with Jennifer. Higher education needs to be more responsive (better, proactive) in insuring the needs of all students are met. And, this commitment to accessibility needs to come from professionals in all functional areas, not just those working in Disability/Accessibility Services or General Counsel. We shouldn't be relying on the Rehabilitation Act and the Americans with Disabilities Act for protection, we should be able to trust that institutions will, as you say, do the right thing.
  • Posted by Paul Cox at University of Iowa on February 7, 2011 at 5:30pm EST
  • Thanks Eric for your commitment to educating others on disability issues.

    The recent Pew Internet data highlighting the difficulties Americans with disabilities face in using the internet only reinforces the need for advocacy. If people don't continue to call for change, it's not likely to happen. Keep on calling.

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