Last week, we had a visit from the UMW Digital Knowledge Center on how to create video projects. This wasn’t my first rodeo with video creation as this past semester in the Fall of 2025, I created along with three other team members a 15 minute video documenting the history of the cassette tape (watch it here: The Tape that Made America) that we had researched in another one of Dr. McClurken’s classes, American Technology and Culture. I’m not going to toot my own horn too much, video is still somewhat foreign territory for me. I’m far from being an expert, but I can confidently cut and edit clips on iMovie or Canva, record audio using microphones, set up a tripod, use a legit camera (not just my iPhone), write transcripts, develop a script, you get the gist. So during the DKC presentation I was feeling good, I’ve got this, been there done that. Also, Dr. McClurken was only asking us to do a two minute video, how hard can that be? While the process wasn’t too difficult, there were some new additional procedures that were thrown into the mix that had me a little nervous.
Making Videos Accessible
With the recent updates to the ADA’s list of accessibility standards, we now must include things like captions and audio description for videos. I’m all for making digital content more accessible to more of the general public, I mean come on that’s a given why wouldn’t I want more people to be able to see and more importantly use the work I’m putting online. The main issue we touched on in class was that these standards assume that the technology required to make these things happen would have been developed at this point. Unfortunately, it has not, but we must persist!
I got our video files from Hannah and uploaded them to Canva to cut out any awkward pauses and put some graphics, like the logos for social media platforms Instagram and Facebook, into the video. I took that file and uploaded it to ScreenPal which has a generative AI feature that creates audio description using the uploaded file. This was a major time saver, and after making a couple of adjustments, the video was ready to go public. It’s linked down below in the description of our YouTube upload.
Video and Our CRHC Project
I don’t believe it’s in the cards for us to create longer form content using video for the CRHC project, but we will likely be making some short for content for Instagram Reels to enhance their social media presence. I know Canva has a portrait view option for video editor that I’m sure we’ll be utilizing. Overall, I think this week reminded me of the importance of video creation as a way to portray and share information, and we will definitely keep in mind the accessibility standards so that the work we are putting into this project doesn’t go underutilized.
Below you can find our final product of our two minute video including an update on our project with the CRHC!
Well done!