But compliance training is often seen as a chore, and employees may find it boring and unengaging. In this blog post, we’ll discuss how and why you should consider making compliance training fun and engaging.

Understanding compliance training

What is compliance training?

Compliance training is a structured educational program designed to teach employees about the laws, regulations, and internal policies that apply to their job roles. It’s a critical component of risk management and helps organizations avoid legal issues, financial penalties, and reputational damage. Compliance training can cover a wide range of topics, including data privacy, workplace safety, ethics, and more.

Why compliance training is important

Compliance training is not just a checkbox to be ticked; it’s an investment in an organization’s future. Here are some reasons why compliance training is important:

• Legal compliance: Compliance training ensures that your organization complies with all relevant laws and regulations, reducing the risk of legal disputes and fines.
• Ethical conduct: It promotes a culture of ethical behavior, reducing the likelihood of misconduct and scandals.
• Risk mitigation: Compliance training helps identify and mitigate risks, protecting your organization from potential harm. Take for example one company’s 2017 data breach, when their failure to implement security updates to their systems and databases compromised their customer data and cost them a minimum of $575 million in fines and settlements. 
• Reputation management: It safeguards your organization’s reputation by demonstrating a commitment to responsible business practices.

Examples of compliance training

Cybersecurity training

This video on information security awareness aims to ensure that employees at all levels understand their role in maintaining data and cybersecurity compliance.

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Finance training

Animated videos can make financial compliance training topics like money laundering fun and engaging, increasing employees’ awareness and deterring illegal practices from taking place.

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Workplace training

The goal of workplace compliance training is to create a work environment that is legal, ethical, safe, and respectful for all employees. Besides instructing about laws and rules, compliance training can be beneficial in helping employees understand the resources available to them.

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Effective compliance training: why the stakes are getting higher

Recent developments have highlighted the need for effective compliance training that goes beyond the bare minimum. Headline-making fraud cases serve as reminders of the legal and reputational risks associated with noncompliance. And while many companies meet legal standards for training, employees often fail to apply what they learn.

The compliance training landscape is evolving to keep pace with strict data protection regulations like the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and the drumbeat of new laws worldwide. These regulations, on top of the hefty fines for noncompliance, have fundamentally changed the way organizations handle and safeguard sensitive data, making compliance training a staple of modern business operations.

Moreover, compliance training programs are shifting from mere “check the box” exercises to comprehensive educational initiatives. In the case of information security, more robust training modules not only inform employees about the intricacies of data protection but also instill a culture of data privacy throughout the organization that emphasizes that being vigilant is everyone’s job. 

^{Check out Cargill’s compliance training success story}

How to create more effective compliance training

The compliance landscape is changing while technology’s influence on the learning process grows. To make their training faster, more engaging, and more effective, companies are increasingly using eLearning platforms, gamification, and training-at-scale technologies.

Agility is also key in this space: the frequent updates and amendments to privacy laws demand a dynamic approach to compliance training. Organizations must be agile and continually update their training materials to ensure that employees are well-versed in the latest legal requirements. 

To boost employees’ engagement with and understanding of your compliance training, here are a few tips: 

Tell stories and use scenarios

Incorporating storytelling into compliance training by showing employees real-life scenarios they may encounter can capture employees’ attention and increase retention rates.

Video, and particularly animated video, is great for storytelling and scenario-based learning. Video helps simplify complex ideas and makes them easy to understand. It’s versatile and captivating, making it ideal for presenting abstract or complicated compliance messages effectively.

And unlike traditional methods of teaching and training, video provides a reference that employees can revisit as needed. 

Keep it short — and make it interactive

Instead of lengthy training sessions, think about delivering compliance training in bite-sized videos. Microlearning with video accommodates learners who might forget compliance lessons quickly, allowing them to pause and replay content anytime for better understanding.

Consider enhancing your training with interactive eLearning platforms, videos, and webinars. Focus on easy-to-deliver formats, like video, which make the training content accessible on different devices for remote and on-the-go learning. 

Lastly, try gamifying your training. Gamification turns your learning modules into a game with rewards and challenges.

Check for understanding

Include tests or quizzes to measure participants’ understanding and make sure they’ve retained important information.

Seek employee feedback

Don’t be afraid to ask for feedback on how to improve employee learning experiences. Ultimately, listening to employees will foster a positive environment that can allow compliance principles to become a part of the organizational culture.

Update regularly

Refresh your content whenever regulations change to ensure ongoing compliance. You might also change up the characters and scenarios or add references to current events.

^{Watch Karl share fresh insights on gamified training} 

Creating effective compliance training videos with Vyond

Vyond is a versatile tool that can be used for various types of compliance training. Its user-friendly interface and customizable templates make it an ideal choice for organizations looking to enhance their communication and L&D goals.

The benefits of compliance training with Vyond

Vyond offers several benefits when used for compliance training:

• Helps you explain complex concepts: Vyond’s animation capabilities make it easy to explain complex compliance topics visually. And with Vyond Go, the AI-powered script and video generator, you can create rough-cut explainer videos in seconds.
• Increases retention: Vyond videos are inherently more engaging than text-based content, helping learners better retain and apply information. When Shelter Insurance started using Vyond videos for cybersecurity training, they saw employee clicks on email phishing links drop by 50%.
• Makes revisions painless: It’s easy to revise or refresh your videos as regulations change. Features like global editing let you make edits in one place and carry them throughout your video in a click.
• Standardizes training: Vyond allows you to create standardized branded training videos that can be easily distributed and edited, ensuring consistency in messaging.
• Saves money: Creating custom training videos with Vyond is more cost-effective than hiring a production team.
• Makes your content more accessible: Training videos can be accessed anytime, anywhere, making it convenient for employees. Features like closed and open captioning help make the content accessible for all learners. And AI-powered features like instant translation let you reach learners in more languages and dialects.
• Keeps viewers engaged: The visual and interactive elements in Vyond videos make compliance training more engaging. (One of our customers in financial services saw employee views on Vyond videos increase 73-fold compared to their previous PDF-newsletter format!)
• Helps you scale training programs: Vyond allows you to scale your training efforts as your organization grows. And because Vyond is so easy to use, organizations like American Express say it has helped their teams overcome designer bandwidth constraints and get training content backlogs moving.

Start creating

Making compliance effectiveness a priority with Vyond videos

Good compliance training is critical for good business. It’s not just about following the law; compliance training is about fostering a culture of integrity and responsibility across your organization. 

Vyond videos can help you take your compliance training from dull necessity to memorable learning experience. By understanding the importance of compliance training, exploring various types of compliance training, and leveraging Vyond’s features, you can create a compliance training program that not only meets legal requirements but also contributes to your organization’s success, strong reputation, and risk readiness.

See for yourself how Vyond can help take your compliance training from weak to wow! Let’s do a quick experiment: 

• Think about text-based training content you currently have— slides, a PDF — that could be more engaging as a video. 
• Start your Vyond free trial — you’ll be into the platform in a few clicks. 
• Once you’re in, select “Vyond Go” from the home screen. 
• In the topic box, copy and paste text from those materials, and choose your options on vibe/format/layout. Here are some Vyond Go tips and a “getting started” video.
• Click “Create a video” and let Vyond Go create a custom script and rough cut video based on your existing content.
• Make small changes right in Vyond Go with Quick Edit or bring your video into Vyond Studio to go deeper with your edits. (It really is this easy.)

Try Vyond for Free

Read the case study

Find out how to create instant custom props and more natural character actions using our generative AI technology. And discover how our new integrations and video captioning and language upgrades will ensure your content is relevant and accessible to your entire audience.

Now, with the arrival of generative AI, L&D teams have the power to create even more personalized and relevant learning experiences in a fraction of the time, and at a scale never before possible.

Read the case study

We often hear from customers that the hardest part about creating videos is getting started. It’s the perfect kind of challenge for generative AI. Enter Vyond Go, the industry’s first AI-powered script and video creator.

By now, Vyond Go has been out in the wild for weeks. And whether you’ve had a chance to take it for a test drive yet or not, we wanted to give you a look under the hood and offer some tips on getting the most from this powerful tool. 

To create a video with Vyond Go, you’ll enter a text prompt to describe your topic, then click on options in the interface to choose the vibe, format, layout, and location you’d like for your video. Within seconds, you’ll have a fully editable video and script that you can tweak on the spot with Quick Edit, or else bring into Vyond Studio for deeper customization.

Try Vyond for Free

The benefit of integrated AI

If text-based AI tools are the ignition, prompts are the keys. 

If you’ve experimented with standalone AI tools like ChatGPT to create video scripts, you know that your outputs are only as good as the prompts you provide. And great prompts require adding a significant amount of detail.

With Vyond Go (which is powered by ChatGPT), we’ve streamlined and simplified the prompting process by conveniently building a number of important factors directly into our platform. 

Let’s take a look, starting from the top.

How to get the most out of Vyond Go

Topic

This is where you’ll give the most detailed, text-based input. The prompt you enter will affect the draft script you get. (Don’t enter details here about the vibe, format, or layout/location you want – you’ll select those later, via the interface.) 

There are two ways you can use Vyond Go here.

1. You can enter a general description of what you’re looking for and rely on AI to deliver a result based on its vast internet training data, or 
2. If you’ve got specific details you’d like included in your video — say, talking points or steps in a procedure — you can paste those into your prompt, along with the general description of what you’re looking for.

Either way, we’ve found that adding at least 50 words for your topic prompt gets the best results.

Keep these tips in mind: 

• Language: Enter a prompt in your preferred language to get a draft script in English—or choose among 70+ languages if you’re a Professional or Enterprise user.
• Length: You can enter as many as 4,000 characters, or about ~700 words; however, note that longer, “stream of consciousness”-type prompts may yield a lower-quality result.
• Structure: Structured prompts are helpful to the AI model and get better outputs. For example: “Create an L&D video based on the below text: [paste in source material for the model to base your video on]”. 
• Duration: specifying a duration in your prompt ( e.g. “write a 60-second video”) doesn’t work…yet. However, including longer sets of talking points in your prompt will yield longer videos.
• Data points: if you have authentic stats and facts about your topic handy, cut and paste them into your prompt. This helps reduce the chance that the AI will pull in an unverified internet stat (or make something up).
• Edit and verify: always run a quality check on your script (are these facts accurate? Is this content tailored appropriately to my target audience? etc.)

Vibe

The vibe you select — formal, informative, casual, playful — will affect your video’s background music, as well as the characters’ personalities and way of speaking. 

Vyond Go features four vibes, which translate to the following speech and character personality outputs:

Keep these tips in mind: 

• Each vibe has its own list of options for background music — a track will be added for you at random. If you’d prefer a different track, you can always adjust that in Vyond Studio.
• If you’re including specific talking points in your topic prompt, make sure they fit with the vibe you select. For example, if your prompt includes details about a major organizational change at a bank, choosing a “Playful” vibe probably won’t give you the results you’re after. 
• On the other hand, if you enter a very short, generic topic prompt, Vyond Go will rely on the vibe you choose for more guidance on what to include in the script. So with a “Casual” vibe, entering a simple prompt like “reorganization” might give you a script draft that opens with, “Hey, guys! I have some exciting news to share about our company!”—which may or may suit the tone you’re going for.

Format

At the time of writing, you can choose one of seven formats for your video. All formats can work as either Talking Head (1 character) or Conversation (2 characters) layouts. 

Here’s an overview of each format type, along with suggestions for key things to include in your topic prompt to generate the best results.

Keep these tips in mind: 

• If you’re including specific talking points in your topic prompt, match them with the type of format you select. For example, if you choose “Announcement” for a product launch, you’ll want to include a date/time, details about what’s launching, where people can go for questions, etc. Or if you choose “How-to,” be sure to include details about what process you’ll explain and the steps you want included.
• If you enter a very generic topic prompt like “birds,” then Vyond Go will look to the format you choose for more guidance on what to include in the script. So for “birds,” had you chosen “Anecdote,” it will create a personal story related to birds; if “Debate,” it will come up with arguments for and against something related to birds: like how they’re amazing creatures with incredible abilities.

Layout

At the time of writing, Vyond Go supports two layouts: Conversation (two characters in dialogue) and Talking Head (one character addressing the audience). 

These video types define the number of characters to feature and whether characters should have a conversation between themselves or talk to the audience.

Each layout offers its own templates, with different combinations of locations and characters, so you don’t need to include those details in your topic prompt. 

We’ll continue to add new locations for more variety – just as we do with other templates and assets in Vyond.

Keep these tips in mind: 

• Right now, you can’t specify a different number of characters in your topic prompt in attempt to override the format settings

• If you need a location that’s not available in Vyond Go but is available in Vyond Studio, it’s currently possible to edit your video using the alternate location. You can replace every scene with your desired template and relink the text-to-speech clips to the correct characters. 

Try Vyond for Free

Writing AI prompts for Vyond Go: best practices summary

• Prompt length: For topic prompts, enter at least 50 words (and up to ~700 maximum).
• Prompt structure: Structured prompts are helpful to the AI model and get better outputs
  • For example: “Create an HR video based on the below text: [paste in source material for the model to base your video on]”. 
  • Longer, “stream of consciousness”-type prompts will have a lower-quality result
• Duration: Don’t try to specify a duration for your video — the model can’t yet heed duration as a parameter ( e.g. “write a 60-second video”). But adding lengthier talking points in your prompt will yield longer videos. 
• Number of characters: Don’t try to specify a different number of characters in your topic prompt attempting to override the format settings — it’s not effective yet.
• Data points: Include authentic stats and facts about your topic in your prompt, if you’ve got them. This helps reduce the chance that the AI will pull in an unverified internet stat (or make something up).
• Match talking points to format and vibe: If you’re including specific talking points in your topic prompt, match them with the type of format and vibe you select. For example, if you choose “Announcement” for a product launch, you’ll want to include a date/time, details about what’s launching, where people can go for questions, etc. — keeping in mind the appropriate vibe you selected for what you’re announcing. Or if you choose “How-to,” be sure to include details about what process you’ll explain and the steps you want included, aligned to your chosen vibe.
• Format dictates direction where needed: If you enter a very generic topic prompt like “birds,” then Vyond Go will look to the format you choose for more guidance on what to include in the script. So for “birds,” had you chosen “Anecdote,” it will create a personal story related to birds; if “Debate,” it will come up with arguments for and against something related to birds: like how they’re amazing creatures with incredible abilities. 
• Edit and verify: always run a quality check on your script (are these facts accurate? Is this content tailored appropriately to my target audience? etc.)

Sample topic prompts and videos by content type

We tried out a few sample topic prompts to illustrate the guidance above. Here’s how the output videos turned out – plus the parameters and topic prompt we used to get there.

HR 

Vibe: Formal

Format: Anecdote

Layout: Conversation

Prompt:

• Lessons from a First-Time Manager with an Underperforming Team Member
• Grace was a first-time manager at HipTech, a tech company in Austin
• In her new role, she inherited a team of accountants, and one of her team members was not performing well.
• Grace learned: she should have addressed performance issues right away, that it’s OK to ask for help from her peers who are managers, and to trust her instincts even though she’s new to managing.

Raw video output:

Notes:

The characters, location, and flow worked well. Vyond Go added relevant details we hadn’t included, such as offering the employee resources, and an ultimate outcome: that the employee turned things around.

L&D

Vibe: Casual

Format: How-to

Layout: Conversation

Prompt:

(language cut and pasted from a Vyond Resource post)

How L&D professionals can create digital media that is accessible and inclusive

1. Add closed captions

Closed captions—a textual display of what’s being said, with the ability to be toggled off— help people with hearing and visual impairments understand and enjoy the video content you create. The captions are also necessary for making 508-compliant video content. If you’re making any content for a government agency, the content must be 508-compliant.

Closed captions are an overlay on top of a completed video, as pictured above in this video from Virtual Care for Kids. If captions are built into the video itself, they are called“open captions.” There is no way for viewers to turn off open captions and it’s not possible for screen-reading software to understand them.

With a third-party tool, you can add proper closed captions to any video. Research your options for captioning apps and keep in mind that some programs are platform-specific. For example, Clipomatic or iPhone Clips work well for Instagram Stories.

2. Be mindful of video design

The design of a video itself is a huge factor in how accessible the content is. The wrong design choices can exclude audiences with certain disabilities. For example, if someone in your audience has a visual impairment, an overly-busy video could be difficult to interpret. But there are a couple of ways you can ensure that your video design is friendly to your entire audience.
Keep text away from where closed captions will be. Cluttered screen text can be difficult to read for those who require closed captions. When placing text, keep in mind where closed captions will appear in order to prevent this from occurring.
Ensure that your videos are safe for those with photo sensitivities by avoiding the flash threshold. If videos have quick transitions or bright flashes in succession, they can cross the general flash threshold and cause epileptic seizures. Avoiding flashing effects is also helpful in consideration of people with ADHD, autism, and those in concussion recovery.
Be mindful of your color choices.
Consider representation in your content. Can you cast or include disabled people or animated characters? This won’t make your content inherently more accessible, but it will help disabled viewers see themselves represented in your message.

3. Use alt text on thumbnails

Alt text is copy that both supplements and even replaces an image when necessary. Alt text makes it possible for those with vision impairments to enjoy images and fully digest your content. A screen-reading program will read alt text where the image should be, giving a visually impaired listener an idea of what the image represents. This is equally true for video thumbnails that might be placed on an article.

Alt text also helps with general readability if the image doesn’t load. If a user has an outdated browser or poor connection, the alt text will display in place of the image and ensure that the overall experience isn’t affected.

4. Transcribe visual or auditory media

For those with any kind of visual or learning impairment, videos on their own may not be enough. A transcript of what is said in the video makes it possible for people to slow down and learn at their own pace.

Use a third-party app or integration to transcribe your recorded videos. Transcribe, Rev, and Express Scribe are three great options to start with.

5. Make the right color choices in video
Color vision deficiency affects nearly 7.4% of the population in the United States.
Those with color vision deficiency are often unable to clearly distinguish between red, blue, and green. Avoid layering red, blue, and green in visuals where the colors aren’t pertinent to understanding the message.
Use a contrast checker to make sure your text and background combinations are readable by those with color vision deficiency.

Raw video output:

Notes:

The script did a fine job of translating the talking points into a conversation between the two characters. It didn’t create a conclusion, so it currently ends abruptly after the last tip — we’d want to adjust the script to add an ending.

Sales Enablement 

Vibe: Informative

Format: Overview

Layout: Talking head – Circles

Prompt:

(talking points based on a Vyond template video)

Create an example video for sales development representatives at Zodio, showing how they can talk to prospects about Zodio’s employee engagement platform. The speaker’s name is Brad Jackson, a sales representative at Zodio.

• Brad introduces himself
• Employee engagement has a huge impact on your organization’s success.
• Engaged and connected employees help nurture a collaborative work culture, which results in innovative outcomes. 
• Zodio believes employee engagement can be fun, which is why we baked fun right into our internal communications platform.
• Zodio is a unique employee engagement tool that personalizes each employee’s experience based on their zodiac sign.
• In addition to all the features you expect of a robust employee engagement system, Zodio offers the fun sense of self that comes from astrology.
• You can participate in weekly mindfulness activities based on your zodiac sign.
• Create engaging surveys.
• Organized virtual events and games and more.
• Zodio also provides an engagement tracking feature that analyzes how employees are connecting and engaging over time.
• Want to learn more?
• Schedule a personalized demo with me to see how your company and Zodio are a match made in the stars.

Raw video output:

Notes:

Good result and usable as-is, though we might want to bring it into Vyond Studio to add screenshots of the product, Zodio. The template nicely added chapter titles.

That concludes our tour of Vyond Go! We hope these tips help you save time on video creation — and inspire you to get in there and start experimenting! 

Embrace the future of video creation with Vyond Go

As AI continues to shape the landscape of content generation, the key lies in integrating the tools that help create business-relevant, customizable, and on-brand videos Vyond Go leads the charge by seamlessly integrating AI with creative control, transforming your ideas into captivating visuals.  Dive into the possibilities with a 14-day free trial of Vyond Go.

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The month marks the anniversary of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA). Signed into law in July 1990, this piece of legislation was a major step toward achieving equal access for those with disabilities. The act specifically focused on making public transportation and spaces, employment, and government services more accessible.

More than thirty years later, we’re focusing on making another area more friendly to those with disabilities: digital media. The Web Content Accessibility Guidelines offer a set of standards to help ensure accessibility. To honor Disability Pride Month and help you create content to be enjoyed by all, let’s take a look at a few steps you can take to create accessible video content.

1. Add closed captions to videos

Closed captions—a textual display of what’s being said, with the ability to be toggled off—help people with hearing and visual impairments understand and enjoy the video content you create. The captions are also necessary for making 508-compliant video content. If you’re making any content for a government agency, the content must be 508-compliant.

Closed captions are an overlay on top of a completed video, as pictured above in this video from Virtual Care for Kids. If captions are built into the video itself, they are called “open captions.” There is no way for viewers to turn off open captions and it’s not possible for screen-reading software to understand them.

With a third-party tool, you can add proper closed captions to any video. Research your options for captioning apps and keep in mind that some programs are platform-specific. For example, Clipomatic or iPhone Clips work well for Instagram Stories.

Vyond’s 2023 Spring release introduced fast and efficient closed captioning for all your Vyond video projects. You can also read this guide on how to add closed captions to your Vyond videos.  

2. Be mindful of video design

The design of a video itself is a huge factor in how accessible the video’s content is. The wrong design choices can exclude audiences with certain disabilities. For example, if someone in your audience has a visual impairment, an overly-busy video could be difficult to interpret. But there are a couple of ways you can ensure that your video design is accessible-friendly to your entire audience.

• Keep text away from where closed captions will be. Cluttered screen text can be difficult to read for those who require closed captions. When placing text, keep in mind where closed captions will appear in order to prevent this from occurring.
• Ensure that your videos are safe for those with photo-sensitivities by avoiding the flash threshold. If videos have quick transitions or bright flashes in succession, they can cross the general flash threshold and cause epileptic seizures. Avoiding flashing effects is also helpful in consideration of people with ADHD, autism, and those in concussion recovery. Use tools to prevent this from happening.
• Be mindful of your color choices. More on this in #5 below.
• Consider representation in your content. Can you cast or include disabled people or animated characters? This won’t make your content inherently more accessible, but it will help disabled viewers see themselves represented in your message.

The above changes are easy to implement, but make a world of difference. 

3. Use alt text on thumbnails

Alt text is copy that both supplements and even replaces an image when necessary. Alt text makes it possible for those with vision impairments to enjoy images and fully digest your content. A screen-reading program will read alt text where the image should be, giving a visually impaired listener an idea of what the image represents. This is equally true for video thumbnails that might be placed on an article.

See below how the image of a woman at her laptop has alt text in the website code to describe the details a screen reader couldn’t understand:

Alt text also helps with general readability if the image doesn’t load. If a user has an outdated browser or poor connection, the alt text will display in place of the image and ensure that the overall experience isn’t affected.

While the example above applies to images on websites, various video players offer alt text options for video thumbnails as well. 

4. Transcribe visual or auditory media

For those with any kind of visual or learning impairment, videos on their own may not be enough. A transcript of what is said in the video makes it possible for people to slow down and learn at their own pace.

Not only are transcriptions useful for those needing assistance with a video, but they’re also great for creating additional content. For example, a transcript can be cleaned up and turned into a supplemental article that pairs with your video content on your company’s blog.

Use a third-party app or integration to transcribe your recorded videos. oTranscribe, Rev, and Express Scribe are three great options to start with. It’s also possible to transcribe live videos, such as webinars or conferences, to ensure that your content reaches as many people as possible.

5. Make the right color choices in video

Color vision deficiency affects nearly 7.4% of the population in the United States, meaning your choice of colors could keep 7.4% of people from fully enjoying what you create.

Those with color vision deficiency are often unable to clearly distinguish between red, blue, and green. While you can’t rebrand to cut certain colors, you can avoid layering red, blue, and green in visuals where the colors aren’t pertinent to understanding the message.

It’s also a good idea to use a contrast checker to make sure your text and background combinations are readable by those with color vision deficiency. Contrast requirements vary depending on the size of the text, so be as specific as possible when using a contrast tool.

6. Include video descriptions on social media

Include descriptive breakdowns of videos shared on social media to ensure that those with impairments can understand your posts.

Much like alt text on a website, video descriptions on social posts are typically read by a screen-reading program to help people who are visually impaired experience the content. It’s important to be as clear and as detailed as possible when writing video descriptions so your audiences can fully understand what is happening in your content.

Video descriptions can go in various places, depending on the social media platform. For example, Facebook has a video description area, whereas Twitter requires that you enable video descriptions under options first. If you can’t find an area to enter a video description on a certain platform, it’s possible you need to enter the description as the first comment on the post.

7. Remove autoplay from videos

Auto playing content on sites is distracting and downright impeding for people with certain disabilities. Someone using a screen reader will be unable to hear the page being read because the video will play at the same time as the screen reader. Those with focus problems can find themselves distracted and overwhelmed. It’s also possible for videos to trigger seizures in people with epilepsy, making autoplay videos a possible health hazard.

Whenever you upload or embed videos, be sure they’re set to play only when clicked. This ensures that your viewers get the experience that best suits them. It’s also a good idea to avoid having ads with audio on your site, because these will be equally distracting for people. Fortunately, many social platforms keep sound off on ads by default. But this is something worth double-checking.

Learn more about top web accessibility resources.

Tips for Getting Started on Creating Accessible Videos

We reached out to Vyond customer and accessibility advocate Liz Schumacher, Engagement Manager at Rivermark Community Credit Union, for her advice on creating accessible video content. According to Liz, “universal design is right for everyone. In addition to those protected by ADA, you or I can benefit when we’ve had too little sleep, or have an environmental issue—using a mobile device underground or when we require ease of access due to a temporary injury like a broken arm.” Here are a few of Liz’s recommendations for creating accessible content:

• Create a company style guide that incorporates accessibility considerations as part of mandatory brand guidelines for both internal and external communications. This way, content can be presented with accessibility for all as the default and nobody will need to take extra steps to access the content.
• Use personas with varying abilities.
• Accessible content doesn’t mean graphic design is out. Learn more here.
• In the case of interactivity, use shapes with high contrast to differentiate the choices. 
• For eLearning courses, enable keyboard shortcuts. This helps avoid scrolling or requiring a “click and drag” interaction. 
• Color and font are an easy place to start. Simple changes can give you an immediate accessibility lift. For fonts, be sure to use ADA and WCAG-compliant font types for accessibility. This can benefit everyone when it comes to comprehension and accessibility for individuals in the following communities:  English as a second language, Deaf, limited sight, Dyslexic, Epileptic, and ADD/ADHD.

Learn more about accessibility basics at usability.gov and for more information on disability categories and deliberate strategy in content design visit webaim.org.

Creating Accessible Content for All

The preceding steps for creating accessible video content are just the beginning. The fight for true inclusivity is ongoing. Take it upon yourself to champion this cause by creating accessible and representative content, and push to make your company, as a whole, more inclusive. A world that’s accessible to all is a world we can all aim for.

At Vyond, we strive to empower creators with the ability to make content that’s consumable by everyone. Our animations can be paired with closed-captioning and video creators can include characters with disabilities—to name a few options. If there’s something missing in this post or if you have suggestions for making Vyond more inclusive, please let us know at inclusion@vyond.com.

Create your own accessible animated videos:

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Existing and emerging text-to-video AI tools are making it easier than ever to create video content. And they’re only getting better. Here’s a look at the types of AI tools that exist now and what’s coming soon, the leading players, and the benefits of text-to-video generators.

What is text-to-video AI software?

A few years ago, software advertising itself as “AI-powered” and capable of transforming text to video entered the market, promising faster and easier outputs. These offerings generally fall into two categories:

The first are video makers that match keywords in a text prompt you provide to a random assortment of stock photos, music, and video clips that are tagged with similar keywords. The result: videos–usually geared for social media—that can feel stylistically inconsistent and generic.

The second are platforms that allow you to create videos narrated by a selection of human-like avatars that will say whatever text you provide. The result: “talking head” content that, despite advances in the technology, still comes off as stiff and less than genuine.

However, as of 2023, a new, far more powerful category of AI video creation tools is emerging. Unlike keyword matchers and avatar creators, this software is powered by generative AI (think ChatGPT and DALL-E 2) that has the potential to help companies create high-quality video content that’s both original and easily edited.

Let’s take a look at how these exciting AI-powered text-to-video makers work; which are available now and which are coming soon; and how they promise to change the way you make professional-grade videos.

Learn more about AI powered video

Leading AI text-to-video generators

Emerging text-to-video AI tools are being developed by both well-regarded brands adding generative AI functionality to their platforms and new companies working to bring their first product to market. Here are some of the main players. 

Vyond Go 

Even before the launch of Vyond Go in June 2023, Vyond’s animated video creation software was loaded with AI-powered features like Instant Video Translation, Photo to Character, Visual Content Search, and Speech Enhancement that help users automate time-consuming tasks and create content more quickly.

With the release of Vyond Go, the company became the first in the video creation industry to offer an AI-based script and video creator, capable of creating a script and high quality, editable video content, based on a text prompt, within seconds.

Once a first draft has populated, users can quickly polish the video within Vyond Go using a simple text-based editor, or take it into Vyond Studio for fine-tuning.

How Vyond Go Works

1. Enter a prompt or drop in content you want it to respond to.

Vyond Go creates video scripts with the help of ChatGPT, which is integrated with the platform. ChatGPT draws upon its vast Internet-based learning model to generate a script based on your prompt. 

Or, if you include a sample of information in your prompt you want it to incorporate, it will generate content based primarily on that sample. 

Learn more about ChatGPT video scripting from Vyond’s CEO

2. Choose the vibe, format, and location you want for your video

The Vyond Go platform allows you to choose from a multitude of locations (like Home, Abstract Background, Open Office), vibes (like formal, informative, casual, or playful), formats (like announcements, rants, and overviews), and layouts (like conversation or talking head). 

3. Edit the video with Quick Edit—or refine it in Vyond Studio

After typing in your prompt and making your other selections, Vyond Go delivers a script and a starter video in seconds. You can then adjust text and voice-over content within Vyond Go. Or by clicking on the edit icon, you can fine-tune it within Vyond’s standard video creation platform, Vyond Studio–for example, swapping out characters, changing backgrounds, and instantly translating the video into 70+ languages.

Pros:

• Vyond Go is the only product like this on the market, and it’s available as of June 28, 2023. 
• The script and video output created with a text prompt is editable and in a unified style
• All the AI tech exists right in the Vyond platform; there’s no need to use multiple tools to generate or edit content

Cons: 

• Vyond Go doesn’t yet have the ability to generate brand-new animated content based on a text prompt–but that functionality is coming soon
• Thus far, you can use Vyond Go to create content in Vyond’s Business-friendly style, but not their Contemporary or Whiteboard styles

Watch Vyond Go’s Launch Webinar

Adobe Firefly

For more than five years, Adobe has been integrating Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Machine Learning (ML) technology across its platform to automate tasks and boost creativity–technology they call Adobe Sensei. 

In April 2023, Adobe entered the generative AI market with the launch of the beta version of Adobe Firefly, its new suite of creative generative AI models. As of June 2023, their offerings include the ability to generate original images, color variations, and other visual effects with a text prompt—elements producers can use to create videos. But soon Adobe hopes to also offer video producers the ability to make edits to already-recorded video, like changing color schemes, time of day, and even the seasons with a simple text prompt.

Pros: 

• Like Vyond, Adobe Firefly offers a variety of AI and generative AI functionality all in a single, already popular content creation and editing platform.

Cons: 

• Though the goal of Firefly is to make design projects simpler, Adobe products are still targeted towards designers. So non-designers may still face a learning curve. 

Text-to-video AI tech still in R&D

A handful of tech companies are developing models that will soon make it possible for companies to create high-resolution video clips of scenes based on text prompts. While they’ve not yet brought a product to market as of June 2023, the research papers and sneak peeks they’re providing online make clear the huge potential for this technology. 

Nvidia, a longtime leader in AI computing, is sharing its research on generating high-resolution video clips with latent diffusion models. Their website features samples of short, funny video clips they’ve been able to generate from text prompts, including ones of a polar bear playing a bass, a lion surfing, and a koala playing the piano.

Meta is previewing their Make-a-Video tool, which aims to create short video clips from both text-based prompts and static image prompts. 

Newcomers like Runway.ml and Opus.ai are also sharing their research, and providing glimpses into what may be available in the near future. 

Pros: 

• Once this class of text-to-video AI technology is more refined and user-friendly, it will be possible to create high-quality video content more easily than ever before. 

Cons: 

• None of these companies are yet offering a viable product. 
• Most of the video clips these tools can create thus far are very short, lower-resolution GIF-length clips. As is, these outputs aren’t likely to be useful to companies looking for video content that fits their brand style. 

Business reasons for using generative AI text-to-video tools

Faster video production 

Generative AI text-to-video makers make it possible to create business-friendly, first-draft video content faster than ever before. Specifically:  

• L&D teams tasked with creating a high volume of training video content can turn around requests in less than half the time they’re used to
• HR teams can use text-to-video tools to ensure they’re communicating effectively about policies or business changes in a timely manner
• Sales departments can use generative AI text-to-video tools to keep up with the demand for creating highly personalized, tailored versions of general sales video content to share with prospects 
• Marketing teams can use generative AI text-to-video tools to respond immediately to urgent news or trends with right-time, right-place video content 

Cheaper, more accessible video production 

With these text-to-video AI tools in place, companies will be able to dramatically reduce their reliance on expensive video production vendors, and make it possible for anyone who has a good idea to create engaging video content, not just the design and video production teams on staff. 

More imaginative content 

Very soon, this technology will make it possible for an infinite number of creative ideas to be realized in seconds, simply by typing in a text prompt. 

The future of text-to-video AI tools for business

This cutting-edge tech category is undeniably exciting. But what will ultimately determine the commercial success of these text-to-video AI tools is their ability to create business-friendly content that’s relevant, editable, and brand-compliant. 

As of June 2023, only a few companies have brought such a product to market. But in the months and years to come, as the technology evolves and improves and the market provides feedback about its needs, more is sure to follow. 

And video creation as we know it will never be the same. 

To take Vyond Go for a spin: sign up for a free 14-day trial today. 

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Read the case study

Speakers:

• Leena Randhawa–Head of Learning Solutions, Omniplex Learning
• Erin Champion–Director of Customer Success, Vyond

Wednesday, June 14, 8am PT / 11am ET / 4pm GMT

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