Millions of people in the Netherlands live with a disability. They are blind or partially sighted, deaf or hard of hearing, have a motor impairment or limited literacy. They too have the right to take full part in the digital society. That is not an optional wish: all government bodies in the Netherlands are legally required to make their digital channels accessible, in line with the international WCAG standard.

Video plays an ever larger role in how governments communicate with citizens. Information films, council meetings, instructional videos, press conferences: the volume keeps growing. That makes sense, because for many people video and audio are more accessible than text. But publishing a video is not the same as publishing an accessible video. That takes more. Jet-Stream has built digital accessibility into its platform from the ground up.

Subtitles for deaf and hard-of-hearing viewers

WCAG 1.2.2, 1.2.3 and 1.2.5: Around 1.3 million people in the Netherlands are deaf or hard of hearing. Without subtitles, they miss the content of a video. Jet-Stream's Privacy Player supports subtitles in multiple languages. Particularly practical: the system links subtitle files automatically based on their file names, so administrators do not need to perform any technical steps per video. Upload the subtitle file with the right name and the system does the rest. Jet-Stream also supports descriptive subtitle tracks that show not only what is being said, but also describe what you see or hear on screen, or what the context is.

Alternative audio tracks for blind and partially sighted viewers

For people who are blind or partially sighted, subtitles are not enough: they benefit from audio description, an additional spoken explanation of what is shown on screen. Jet-Stream supports multiple audio tracks per video in multiple languages, so viewers of every nationality can understand the video in their own language, including separate context audio tracks for users with a visual impairment. This gives blind viewers a full experience of video content that would otherwise pass them by.

Adjustable colours and contrast for visually impaired viewers

WCAG 1.4.3: More than 800,000 people in the Netherlands are colour blind, and many others have a visual impairment that makes it hard to distinguish certain colour combinations or low contrast. The Jet-Stream player can be adjusted dynamically per viewer, to match your brand identity but also to accommodate impairments: the player's colours are configurable. This tailors the viewing experience to what the individual user needs. Because the colours can be changed dynamically via JavaScript, even while the video is playing, the web developer has full control over the right experience for each user, who can change the colours at the push of a button.

Fully controllable from the website, including with assistive technology

WCAG 2.1.1: People with a motor impairment often do not use a mouse, but a keyboard, a switch or another input method. The Jet-Stream player can be fully controlled from the website: a web developer can use large, accessible buttons, build a completely custom player interface, and let users operate the player with keyboard commands, such as play, stop, audio on or off, or starting the video at a specific moment. The web developer can also read the player's status. This way the video player fits into the wider accessibility infrastructure of a website and offers a deeper, more integrated experience than a plain iFrame, which of course remains an option too.

No cookies, no trackers: legally accessible too

Digital accessibility is not only about impaired sight or hearing. It is also about barrier-free use. The Jet-Stream player works entirely without cookies and trackers. That means no cookie banners, no consent requests and no legal complications when embedding. The web developer implements it once, and from then on videos can be published without involving a developer or Jet-Stream, and without technical, interface or legal barriers for the user, who also never has to change cookie settings afterwards.

Broad device reach: nobody left out

A video that only works on the latest smartphone or in one specific browser does not reach everyone. Jet-Stream uses the most widely supported codecs for maximum coverage, on older devices as well as the very latest. The Jet-Stream player works in all common browsers such as Chrome, Edge and Safari, and on the main operating systems: Mac, Windows, Linux, Android and iOS, covering PCs, tablets and smartphones. Adaptive bitrate streaming and real-time packaging, combined with smart algorithms in the Privacy Player, continuously and automatically adapt the video quality to the viewer's connection speed and screen size, from a slow mobile connection to fibre. No buffering, no drop-off. HLS adaptive video over HTTPS ensures that users behind firewalls or on strict networks can also simply watch, securely.

Worldwide availability for everyone

Not everyone is in the Netherlands. That is why, on top of its own redundant Dutch infrastructure, Jet-Stream has deep integrations with multiple global Content Delivery Networks, as they are called, each with hundreds of thousands of servers strategically spread across the world. Within a millisecond, the system determines in which part of the world the viewer is located and actively directs them to the nearest available servers. This not only provides high availability and capacity for millions of simultaneous viewers, so a popular video does not overload your site and both your site and the video always remain accessible, it also delivers good performance as far away as the Caribbean, Asia and South America. Even when using European, digitally sovereign CDNs.

Available to whoever you choose: you decide

Not every video is suitable for every audience. And you do not want your videos to appear on other websites without permission. That is why Jet-Stream gives you real-time access control per video, using three methods: 1) You can set a password per video. Only users with the password can watch the video. 2) You can also geo-restrict each video, so it is only available in one country or a group of countries. 3) You can also lock each video individually. The video is then only accessible when the viewer watches via your website, or when the viewer is logged in to a protected area of your site. This works with a single sign-on token: your web developer adds a small piece of code once to tell Jet-Stream that a viewer is allowed. Jet-Stream's platform refuses viewers without a valid token, and instead of the video the player shows a short video message that you can set yourself. These features require no connectors or integrations, and you do not need to maintain users with permissions at Jet-Stream. You can use all three protection methods at the same time.

Synchronisation with presentations and interactive pages

Government websites increasingly offer combined information: a video alongside a presentation, a timeline or an interactive document. Jet-Stream makes it possible to synchronise the player with other elements on the page, and vice versa. That opens the door to rich, accessible experiences in which video and context are presented together, without the user having to switch between them. The player also supports playlists, so videos can play automatically one after another.

Open: no lock-in and maximum freedom

Many video platforms only work with their own video player, or require you to bundle an expensive player. Privacy Player Pro is bundled free of charge with every Jet-Stream Pro or Enterprise account, with unlimited use. Jet-Stream's platform also works with your own video player. Key features such as multi-CDN, statistics, anti-deeplinking and geo-restriction work completely independently of the player. This leaves your web developer free to use specific players alongside Jet-Stream's Privacy Player, for example in apps and on smart TVs for even wider reach, without any need for integration and without compromising on availability, usage insights or access protection.

Your media stays accessible, and nobody is secretly watching

Jet-Stream is a champion of data privacy and digital sovereignty. Because Jet-Stream is itself Dutch, has no legal ties to non-EU parties, hosts in the Netherlands and deliberately does not use non-EU suppliers, your videos, as well as the logs and analytics, are in safe hands: your own. Jet-Stream cannot be forced by foreign legislation to shut down your video service or hand over data. No cookies or trackers are used. Data is minimised and anonymised. Your media remains yours, as do the logs and statistics. Your media stays accessible to everyone, and nobody is watching along with your viewers: that too is responsible video hosting. It earned Jet-Stream the 2024 Dutch Privacy Award.

Deeper accessibility for governments

Multilingual support, subtitles, colour management, player control, access protection and all other functionality are extensively documented, including code examples for your web developer, so they can integrate your digitally accessible video service in minutes rather than days.

Digital accessibility is not a checklist. It is a design choice that has to be carried through the entire technical chain. Jet-Stream has made that choice: from subtitles and audio description to adjustable colours, smart infrastructure, a deliberate EU-only policy, privacy protection, robust access control, broad device support and a fully programmable player, to name a few.

For governments that want to make their video content accessible to all citizens and stay in control, as the law requires, Jet-Stream offers a platform that supports this from start to finish, and goes further. Jet-Stream does so in a digitally sovereign, GDPR compliant and green way. For your live streams too.

Want to know more about digital accessibility for governments? See digitaleoverheid.nl.

Use this handy digital accessibility checklist:

  • Subtitles in multiple languages
  • Subtitles with context tracks
  • Multilingual audio tracks
  • Context audio tracks
  • Adjustable colours, in real time
  • Custom control buttons possible
  • Programmatic player control possible
  • No cookies or trackers
  • Broad codec support
  • Broad device and software support
  • Adaptive bitrate streaming
  • HLS streaming
  • Available worldwide
  • High uptime
  • Large scale
  • Password protection
  • Geofencing
  • Single sign-on token access control
  • Enforced access restriction
  • Two-way player synchronisation
  • Works with external players, with all features
  • GDPR compliant, no privacy washing
  • Data minimisation
  • Data anonymisation
  • Transfer of data ownership
  • Legally digitally sovereign across the entire chain, no sovereignty washing
  • Technically digitally sovereign across the entire chain, no sovereignty washing
  • Certified green hosting, no greenwashing
  • Extensive documentation with sample code
  • Professional support, including help drafting your WCAG accessibility statement
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