General
YouTube is dedicated to fostering an inclusive digital ecosystem where creators, viewers, and partners of all abilities can connect, share, and experience content seamlessly. Pursuant to the regulations established by the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) under the Accessible Canada Act (ACA), this Progress Report outlines the actions taken by YouTube Canada to implement its Accessibility Plan, address barriers, and fulfill statutory obligations across all platform operations.
Contact Information
YouTube welcomes all feedback, including feedback about the delivery of our goods, services, or facilities to people with disabilities. YouTube also welcomes feedback regarding its feedback process and accessibility plan. Individuals can contact the Google Disability Support team to provide feedback. The team is available through Email, Chat, Phone, Be My Eyes and ASL channels, with details available at g.co/disabilitysupport:
- By Email: Email a Google Disability support specialist
- By Phone: Talk to a Google Disability support specialist
- By Chat: Chat with a Google Disability support specialist
- By Be My Eyes app: Contact a specialist through Be My Eyes
- By ASL: Contact an American Sign Language (ASL) specialist
Alternate Formats & Feedback Submission
When requested, YouTube provides publicly available information and communication materials in accessible formats with needed communication support. YouTube delivers this service in a timely manner and free of charge. To request alternate formats (e.g., Print, Large Print, Braille, Audio, or Accessible Electronic Formats) of this accessibility plan, progress reports, and feedback process description at at g.co/disabilitysupport.
Feedback
During the reporting period, YouTube received several hundred relevant submissions through the feedback process, including via Chat, Email, Phone, and Be My Eyes.
Feedback received mainly consisted of user requests for support or suggestions for new or improved products or features.
Feedback requesting support included questions related to using YouTube’s accessibility products or features, support navigating YouTube products, and general Youtube product questions from users with self-identified disabilities. Support was provided by agents who are specifically hired for accessibility support, and are trained on assistive technologies (such as screenreaders) and accessibility products and features (such as Android text-to-speech). Where relevant, agents also directed users to relevant articles within YouTube’s Help Center. In the large majority of requests for support, the user's issue was resolved directly by the support team. Where not resolved, Accessibility Support submitted tickets to the relevant engineering team for follow-up. Additionally, during the reporting period, Google launched the Accessibility Help Community in addition to its traditional support channels to provide information and guidance to those utilizing accessibility-related features.
Feedback suggesting new or improved products or features spanned a variety of different accessibility-related concerns, including requests for screen reader enhancements, captioning modifications or improvements, and feature suggestions based on dexterity needs and on sensory-related concerns. Feature requests were documented and communicated to the relevant product team for further evaluation where applicable. Several updates to YouTube’s accessibility-related products made during the reporting period incorporated user feedback.
Youtube received no feedback with regards to the Accessibility Plan’s feedback process itself.
Consultations
YouTube continues to take steps to foster communication of ideas and solutions by consulting with persons with disabilities and groups advocating on their behalf. During the reporting period, among other advocacy groups, YouTube consulted with the National Association of the Deaf (NAD) and the National Technical Institute for the Deaf (NTID) on caption presentation best practices as well as user-interface challenges; and met with Blind and Low-vision advocacy groups. YouTube intends to expand its consultation process to include advocacy groups based in Canada and abroad.
YouTube recognizes that direct consultation with persons with disabilities is fundamental to creating a truly accessible platform. We are committed to ongoing and meaningful engagement. To that end, YouTube often utilizes conducts user experience research with disabled users, including utilizing Google’s Accessibility User Research Panel (formerly the Accessibility Trusted Tester programme), a measure Google currently has in place to consult with disabled users on accessibility features across Google products, including accessibility features on YouTube. The Accessibility User Research Panel is a standing user research panel of 400+ external accessibility users from across the United States, Canada and the United Kingdom. During the reporting period, Youtube also conducted user experience research with Deaf and Blind participants to evaluate certain accessibility-related features.
Areas Under Section 5 of the ACA
We have made progress in removing the barriers identified in our accessibility plan, including:
Information and Communication Technologies (ICT)
During the reporting period, among other updates to accessibility-related features, YouTube has made significant advancements in YouTube's global captioning and voice translation capabilities. These include expanding support for automatic captioning by 25 additional languages (including Basque, Cantonese, and Zulu) to reach a total of 67 supported languages globally, adding full punctuation to auto-generated captions to improve readability and comprehension, and introducing auto-dubbing support for 14 additional source languages when translating content into English.
Looking ahead, in the next reporting period, YouTube will be making major accessibility updates to continue to reduce and remove barriers by making videos easier to follow. These features will include Expressive Captions, where non-speech audio cues are embedded directly into a caption track; and Voice Boost, a new feature designed to make speech dialogue noticeably clearer by reducing background noise.