Are Your Digital Media Players Accessible? Key Issues and Solutions

Digital media players are everywhere. Whether you’re watching a video, listening to a podcast, or streaming music, media players are an essential part of the online experience. According to recent statistics, over 80% of global internet traffic now comes from video streaming and downloads, making accessible media players more important than ever.

As a blind person who relies on assistive technology, I frequently encounter barriers when interacting with these players on mobile devices. Adjusting playback position, hiding or unhiding controls, and accessing time-related information can be frustrating or impossible without proper accessibility design.

Many of these issues could have been caught with automated accessibility testing. However, only usability testing with real people with disabilities ensures a seamless experience. Companies working toward EN 301 549 (European Accessibility Standard) or WCAG (Web Content Accessibility Guidelines) compliance should prioritize manual and user testing to catch these real-world barriers. Learn more about balancing automated and manual testing here.

Playback Scrubber Position Adjustments

Almost all media playback interfaces include a way to adjust playback progress, typically through a draggable scrubber bar. Unfortunately, these scrubbers often present serious accessibility issues.

Common Problems With Playback Scrubbers:

• Unrecognized by screen readers – In some cases, the playback scrubber is invisible to assistive technology, making it impossible to adjust playback via touch or swipe gestures.
• Slider adjustment gestures don’t work—My screen reader allows me to use one-finger swipes to move sliders at a preset interval. However, on some media players, these swipes do not affect playback.
• Intervals are too large – I recently tried rewinding 15 seconds in a weather report. Instead, my swipe sent me back to the very beginning of the recording. In contrast, some players limit jumps to 10 seconds, making adjustments more manageable.
• No real-time feedback – Another method to adjust playback is the tap-and-drag method, where users double-tap, hold, and drag to move the scrubber. However, this only works if the player provides real-time screen reader feedback (e.g., “Moved 30 Seconds Ahead”). Without feedback, adjustments become random and unpredictable.

These challenges illustrate why automated accessibility testing is not enough. Usability testing with screen reader users would immediately reveal these issues. Companies working toward EN 301 549 compliance or WCAG conformance should include manual testing in their accessibility process. 

Hiding and Unhiding the Player Controls

Another common accessibility flaw in mobile digital media players involves the ability to hide and unhide playback controls.

Sighted users can toggle controls by tapping on a space within the player. However, screen reader users cannot reliably place focus on the media player itself, leaving no accessible method to toggle these controls.

This causes several major usability issues:

• If a media player hides controls after a few seconds, a screen reader user may not be able to adjust playback settings once content begins.
• If controls remain visible throughout the video without a way to hide them, they could act us obstructions to some types of assistive technology for people with low vision 
  

A Simple Fix: Add an Accessible Toggle Button

The solution is simple—media players should include a screen reader-accessible button to toggle playback controls. Developers concerned about visual clutter can make the button invisible to sighted users but detectable by assistive technology. I have encountered media players with this feature, and the accessibility experience is dramatically improved.

Testing with real users is critical for companies looking to ensure digital media players meet accessibility standards. Learn more about setting up user testing here.

Time Remaining and Time Elapsed Announcements

One of the most valuable pieces of information when using digital media players is knowing how much time has passed and how much time remains in the media. Screen reader users typically get this data through:

1. The playback seeks a slider.
2. Small text labels before or after the slider

However, this information is often presented in a way that is confusing or inconsistent:

• Many media players only announce playback progress as a percentage (e.g., “Playback at 40%”). While this gives a general idea, it does not offer helpful time-based information.
• Sighted users often see the elapsed and remaining time in minutes and seconds, but screen readers ignore these time-based indicators.

For better usability, media players should always provide elapsed and remaining time in a format that screen readers can announce (e.g., “Time Remaining: 2 Minutes, 15 Seconds” instead of “Playback at 80%”).

Proper usability testing would have easily caught these issues, reinforcing the need for manual and real-user testing in accessibility audits.

Final Thoughts: Ensuring Mobile Media Player Accessibility

As digital content expands across mobile apps and websites, ensuring accessible digital media players is essential. Media player accessibility issues cannot be fully detected through automated testing alone.

Issues like:

• Unlabeled or unresponsive playback scrubbers
• Lack of accessible controls for hiding/unhiding playback buttons
• Poorly implemented time announcements

For companies striving for usability for all customers and compliance with digital accessibility laws like the European Accessibility Act or the Americans with Disabilities Act, investing in comprehensive accessibility testing is critical. Automated tools can catch some issues, but only testing with real users ensures actual usability.

In our October webinar, "Navigating the European Accessibility Act: Requirements and Best Practices,"​ UsableNet's accessibility expert and Vice President of Product Management, Michele Lucchini, discusses accessibility best practices, including the insufficiency of relying only on automated testing. 

Michele explains that Automated testing can identify scalable issues, but manual testing ensures the content is appropriate and usable, capturing nuances that automation misses. Register to listen to all the insights from our October webinar on the European Accessibility Act here. 

By making digital media players accessible, businesses can ensure equal access to content for all users while improving usability, engagement, and compliance. Learn how to incorporate accessibility testing into your development process.

Editor's Note: Our frequent contributor, Michael Taylor, wrote this post. This post reflects his opinions and experiences. Read more about Michael and some other posts on his experience online here.