Discussions become richer and more productive when conference participants can see and hear each other in a videoconference. They are less likely to multi-task or become distracted, and video's visual clues enhance communications.
The costs to videoconference successfully continue to lower. A group video system - even some high definition (HD) systems - can be purchased for well under $10,000. With the ability to transmit videoconferencing over the IP network, and with fixed network connection costs, the average cost of an individual video conference has become very affordable, particularly compared to the "old days," when group videoconferencing transmission was by satellite and, more recently, with T1 lines and/or ISDN dial-up.
For conferences involving State government, they must be fully accessible and comply with WCAG 2.0 level AA and Section 508 requirements.
That said, for conferences that are not recorded, audio captioning, audio description, and other services need only be provided on an as-needed basis.
Conferences that are recorded should have full audio captioning, audio description, and other services added as part of post-production.
The above notwithstanding, if the conference is all "talking heads" with no visual graphics presented, the audio description requirements are minimal.
