Together with our customers, we are committed to an accessible future. We therefore find the cooperation with our customers extremely valuable and the personal story of each of our customers extremely important.
In this series, we ask Scribit.Pro customers about their experiences with our service and our services. How do these organizations, authorities and individuals experience the cooperation with our company? What is their digital accessibility strategy and what role does Scribit.Pro play in it? And do they have any tips for others who want to get started with video accessibility?
Mark Mulder of GGD Gelderland-Zuid is the first to tell his story in this series. Just like Scribit.Pro, this organization sees a social role for itself. Read how GGD Gelderland-Zuid is committed to inclusivity and digital accessibility in particular.
The organization
GGD Gelderland-Zuid is a health service that works on behalf of fourteen municipalities and the national government in the south of Gelderland. GGD Gelderland-Zuid is committed to a healthy region. She does this by helping residents to make healthy choices and to prevent complaints and/or illnesses. The focus is mainly on preventive care. During the corona pandemic, the GGD gained a lot of extra fame because of its corona control tasks such as testing, source and contact research and vaccination. Vaccinations for certain trips abroad are also provided by the GGD. The Youth Health Care department assists children in growing up healthily at, among others, consultation centers and schools for primary and secondary education. The GGD also has the task of providing care to vulnerable groups and individuals in society and wants to be able to mean something for people who avoid or refuse care. Customization is often required.
GGD Gelderland-Zuid has a head office in Nijmegen and a regional office in Tiel. About 700 people work there.
Mark Mulder works within GGD Gelderland-Zuid as a functional manager Office Automation and Communication. He is responsible for managing all websites and tools. He uses Scribit.Pro as a tool for GGD Gelderland-Zuid within its strategy towards more digital accessibility.
How did GGD Gelderland-Zuid get started with digital accessibility?
'GGD Gelderland-Zuid sees a social role for itself. The organization wants to be there for everyone, including and especially for people who have less easy access to care and to (digital) education and information. Healthcare should be accessible to all people. Also for people who have a disability, whether it concerns a physical or a mental disability.
We are legally obliged to have a digitally accessible website. Our site was basically inaccessible until two years ago. We then decided to create a completely new website, so that we can be fully accessible. We have completely revised our website, which works on the basis of Wordpress. The design and technology are now digitally accessible. This transition has taken us almost a year and a half.
By choosing a new, accessible website, we set ourselves two goals. The first goal is of course the desire to create a fully digital accessible website. Every resident, including those with a disability, must be able to find their way on the website. The second goal is that the website is privacy friendly. Especially because the information on our web pages may contain sensitive content (such as searching for information about sexual education or STIs), GGD Gelderland-Zuid considers the privacy of visitors to be of great importance. That is why we do not want to use trackers and use as little as possible from the major tech companies such as Facebook and Google.’
What has Scribit.Pro been able to do for you?
'Scribit.Pro offers a solution for both purposes. Scribit.Pro ensures that the online videos we offer are made accessible in accordance with the guidelines. In this way, the information from that video content is accessible to a much larger group of people. And then these videos are shown through the accessible Scribit.Pro video player, which is privacy friendly. We sometimes post videos on YouTube, for example, but all embedded videos on our website find their way to visitors via the Scribit.Pro video player.'
How did you come into contact with Scribit.Pro?
'Scribit.Pro came our way through my network about a year and a half ago, when we were working on digital accessibility. So that actually happened through word-of-mouth advertising. We immediately found it a big plus that we entered into a partnership with a Dutch company and not with some foreign tech company.'
‘Scribit.Pro is our online video accessibility tool’
What does the collaboration with Scribit.Pro look like?
‘The collaboration is twofold. We have purchased both a subscription and a fixed number of minutes. We wanted Scribit.Pro to make existing videos accessible using audio description, subtitles for the deaf and hard of hearing, and a transcript. But we also wanted new videos to be provided with these forms of support. We are happy to outsource the digital accessibility and publication of our videos. But at the same time we wanted to gain a better understanding of video accessibility: why is it necessary and how exactly do you do it? That's why the entire team responsible for the website and digital affairs within the communications department followed Scribit.Pro's one-day video accessibility training. We wanted a better understanding of video accessibility, but also the knowledge and skills to make videos accessible ourselves. In case of urgency, we want to be able to provide a video with supporting files ourselves.
All communication staff, including myself, have learned in this training about subtitling for the deaf and hard of hearing, audio description and the production of a fully written text alternative, the so-called transcript. For many, it was their first introduction to audio description. That was both fun and very interesting. This way you not only learn the rules and guidelines, but you also see how creative you have to be when making such a video accessible. You then realize that it is really a craft; something that has to be done manually. What Scribit.Pro delivers is human work and craftsmanship.'
How do you like the collaboration?
‘I like it very much. When we have a new video that we want to make accessible, we send an email and often we receive the same video back a day later with all supporting files, so that the video meets the guidelines of the WCAG. That works fine. In turn, we also provide feedback on the services provided, so that Scribit.Pro can also continue to improve its tools and software.’
Any tips for others who also want to get started with video accessibility?
‘Look into the variety of limitations. This way you discover which concrete problems your customers or visitors may experience and you see for yourself the importance of digital accessibility. In addition, I recommend others to also follow the Scribit.Pro Video Accessibility training. This has brought our organization a lot. And it has turned out to be a real win-win situation. If you ensure that your content becomes (more) accessible, you not only have a greater reach, but you create a better experience for every visitor and for all your customers. That is inclusiveness.’