Multiple audio tracks now available on YouTube, including AD for blind viewers

YouTube now has the ability to add multiple audio tracks, including audio description for blind viewers. This was announced at the Game Accessibility Conference in Seattle, United States. The The first video to use this feature is the Assassin’s Creed:Valhalla trailer.

Assassin’s Creed Valhalla, an upcoming action role-playing video game, is all set to release in November this year and its trailer is already making headlines. This is because the trailer of the game is the first anywhere in the world to use YouTube’s new feature.

With this new feature, YouTube users can now add multiple audio tracks, including audio description for blind viewers. All one needs to do is to hit the existing Settings button, and the menu offers an option to switch audio tracks.

The new feature allows you to add any audio file, including those in other languages. Its being hailed as ‘game-changing’ as until now the only way to have audio description on YouTube was to upload separate audio described videos on their own URLs.

Assassin’s Creed Valhalla is developed by Ubisoft Montreal and published by Ubisoft. In March, Ubisoft Montreal has invited Brandon Cole, accessible-gaming advocate and consultant, to lead a series of workshops with developers. This was a part of Ubisoft’s ongoing efforts to make games more accessible.

In an interview to UBisoft A11y, David Tisserand, Senior Manager, Ubisoft’s accessibility team said, “By making an audio-described trailer, we are clearly showing that we want everyone to be part of the conversation. We want everyone to be hyped about our games. We really want to be as inclusive as we can; we realise that our games are slowly but surely becoming more accessible.”

Digital accessibility consultant Raghavendra S Peri calls this a great opportunity. “Transcribing of videos in multiple audio languages will be possible. This will be a major thing coming forward especially in the learning community. There are many coding courses taught in Hindi on YouTube. This can now be taught in regional languages”.