Web player accessibility (UI)

JWP seeks to follow Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.x standards and WAI-ARIA guidelines. Some of these standards and guidelines include the following:

Keyboard being fully accessible
Supported screen readers should be usable at all times
Player customization with CSS to modify focus visibility
Level AA or AAA contrast ratios set through skin customization available both in a custom setup block and in the player builder in the dashboard

The following sections describe default keyboard accessibility, keyboard shortcuts, screen reader support, and captions customization.

Keyboard Accessibility

JWP enables viewers to have an accessible video experience without the use of a mouse. The web player maintains two persistent keyboard shortcuts: Esc and Tab.

Keyboard Key	Action
Esc	Exit a menu, overlay, or fullscreen UI
Tab	Advance to the next focusable item

Once your viewers tab to the a video player on the page, they can use any of the following keyboard shortcuts. Our keyboard navigation is compatible with screen readers.

Keyboard Key	Action
Space bar	Pause or play video
Enter	Select the currently focused item When nothing is in focus, the key pauses or plays the video.
↑ and ↓	Increase or decrease volume by 10% Navigate items in a submenu ^{JW 8.4.0+}
← and →	Seek forward or backward by 5 seconds Move focus from an item in a submenu to the menu bar ^{JW 8.4.0+}
+ and -	Increase or decrease the size of the captions ^{JW 8.28.0+}
0-9	Fast seek to x% of the video
c	Toggle captions off, on, or cycle through the available tracks
f	Enter or exit fullscreen
m	Mute or unmute video volume

Disable shortcuts

Your viewers can always manually disable these shortcuts by following these steps:

Right-click the player.
Select Keyboard Shortcuts from the menu.
Toggle the Keyboard Shortcuts option to Disabled.

Screen reader support

JWP supports the most-used screen readers for accessibility. Rather than guarantee support for every browser and OS, we test our player on browser and operating system combinations known to be widely used by accessibility viewers. For example, some browsers, such as Edge, are known within the community to offer only experimental screen reader support.

To increase the likelihood of a positive experience, we recommend advising your viewers to watch your videos with one of the following minimum combinations:

For JAWS 2017+, Internet Explorer 11 on Windows 10
For NVDA 2017+, Internet 11 or Firefox 57 on Windows 10
For VoiceOver, Safari 10 or Chrome 65 on Mac OS Sierra

Captions customization

As of JW 8.12.0, your viewers can style your captions directly within the player's settings menu (CC icon > Settings). This menu enables your viewers to adjust any of the standard captions settings according to their preferences.

The United States Federal Communications Commission (FCC) requires that a viewer must be able to customize the captions of all previously broadcasted content and online streams with captions.