Lily Bond, Author at 3Play Media https://www.3playmedia.com/blog/author/lily3playmedia-com/ Take Your Video Content Global Tue, 16 Sep 2025 21:53:39 +0000 en-US hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=6.8.3 https://www.3playmedia.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/07/cropped-favicon_1x-300x300-1-32x32.webp Lily Bond, Author at 3Play Media https://www.3playmedia.com/blog/author/lily3playmedia-com/ 32 32 Introducing Our New Brand Identity https://www.3playmedia.com/blog/introducing-our-new-brand-identity/ Wed, 26 May 2021 12:00:53 +0000 https://www.3playmedia.com/blog/introducing-our-new-brand-identity/   Over the past several weeks, you may have noticed some updates to our brand identity. As we continue rolling out these changes, I wanted to take a moment to share more about our rebrand and why it better reflects who 3Play Media is today.   3Play Media began in 2008 as a closed captioning...

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Blog
  • Accessibility

Introducing Our New Brand Identity

Lily Bond

•

white 3Play Media logo on black background
 
Over the past several weeks, you may have noticed some updates to our brand identity. As we continue rolling out these changes, I wanted to take a moment to share more about our rebrand and why it better reflects who 3Play Media is today.
 
3Play Media began in 2008 as a closed captioning company. Now, 13 years later, we do so much more – but our brand was still focused on what we did back then. While captioning is still a core part of our business, we have evolved into a dynamic, integrated platform providing all the services you need to make video accessible and engaging.

WHY REBRAND?


At this point in our business, our suite of services and features is extensive and ever-expanding, and our customers are using 3Play Media in myriad ways to meet diverse and ambitious video accessibility, globalization, and engagement goals. We are constantly inspired by our customers, and their goals push us to continue innovating – which we love. There is nothing that gets us more excited than building new technology to solve emerging needs in our space.
 
We’re making these brand changes for a few reasons, including to have a more modern and consistent look and feel, but ultimately it is to better reflect our commitment to our customers. This commitment goes beyond meeting your needs today: our goal is to future-proof your content for what might come down the road – be it new workflows, new products, or new legal requirements. Our updated brand identity says with confidence that we have you covered, now and in the future.
 
Here’s more specifics on what you can expect to see from 3Play as we continue our brand rollout.

COLOR


Historically, our brand color has been “3Play Blue.” Our new palette focuses on black and white as our primary colors, with magenta, yellow, and blue as secondary pops of color. Keeping 3Play Blue as a secondary color allows us to maintain existing associations while modernizing and changing how we use it. All of these colors were chosen by pairing our brand identity with the psychology of color to visually tell the story of our rebrand.
 
Approved brand colors: black, magenta, white, blue, yellow.
 
The focus on black and white highlights our commitment to being transparent about who we are, what we do, and how we do it. It also reflects our core product of captioning by mimicking traditional white-text-on-black-background closed captioning.
 

A grid of squares with background colors in black, white, blue, pink, and yellow. Text of

Finally, in line with our broader commitment to accessibility, black and white is the most accessible color combination, with a color contrast of 21:1. We have additionally tested our entire color palette for color contrast and color blindness, and have clear guidelines on accessible color combinations.
 
 

LOGO


 

Our new logo is simple and modern with bold color contrast. We’ve updated the text of our logo to have a single font weight in all caps, designed in our primary font of Poppins. This better aligns our logo with the rest of our branding and website. Additionally, we’ve kept our brand icon, but have removed the gradient and made the icon & text monochromatic.

Our primary logo usage will be black on white or white on black, with variants that incorporate our secondary colors. The blocky, solid background of our new logo mimics caption frames. This abstract representation of our core product visually associates our brand with what we do; and while captioning is not all that we do, it’s what we’re known for.
 
All approved variants of the rebranded 3Play Media logo on black and white backgrounds. The options include white, blue, or pink on black; black, blue, or pink on white.
 

ROLLOUT


 

Our customers are our favorite part about what we do: they are companies that value digital inclusion and push the boundaries of how accessibility can make video better every day. That’s not just awesome – that’s bold.
 
Our rebrand reflects our partnership in being bold with you; and in the interest of partnership, we wanted to transparently share our new brand identity with you. We hope you love it.

image of Lily on an abstract background
This blog post was written by Lily Bond, Vice President of Marketing at 3Play Media.
 

What do you think about our rebrand? Let us know on social!

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]]> 3 “Dear Colleague” Letters You Should Read About Inaccessible IT in Higher Ed https://www.3playmedia.com/blog/3-dear-colleague-letters-you-should-read-about-inaccessible-it-in-higher-ed/ Fri, 16 Sep 2016 04:00:00 +0000 https://www.3playmedia.com/blog/3-dear-colleague-letters-you-should-read-about-inaccessible-it-in-higher-ed/ • Because the ADA and Section 504, which were written before the Internet was a part of everyday life, don’t provide specific requirements for online learning, much of the responsibility for making IT accessible has been extrapolated from court rulings, lawsuits, settlements, and Department of Justice (DOJ)/Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights (OCR) inquiries....

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Blog
  • Accessibility

3 “Dear Colleague” Letters You Should Read About Inaccessible IT in Higher Ed

Lily Bond

•

Because the ADA and Section 504, which were written before the Internet was a part of everyday life, don’t provide specific requirements for online learning, much of the responsibility for making IT accessible has been extrapolated from court rulings, lawsuits, settlements, and Department of Justice (DOJ)/Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights (OCR) inquiries.

In addition to dozens of inquiries, complaints, and investigations into inaccessible IT in higher education over the last several years, the DOJ and OCR have submitted “Dear Colleague” letters on the subject to numerous colleges and universities.

While “Dear Colleague” letters don’t set legal precedents, they do help to inform the industry of the DOJ and OCR’s stance on major issues, as well as the standards, requirements, and solutions that they believe educational institutions should be following with regards to web accessibility.

The following three letters document particularly interesting trends in the OCR’s position on web accessibility in higher education.

University of Cincinnati

In December of 2014, the OCR submitted a “Dear Colleague” letter to the University of Cincinnati addressing the university’s web accessibility. The letter notes the conclusions of a compliance review initiated by the OCR in 2013; there was no litigation.

This letter is interesting for two reasons: first, it humanizes the legal standards by giving concrete examples of how inaccessible IT affects students with disabilities; and second, it identifies the breadth of online services that the OCR will cover.

Key Takeaways

1: The OCR wants colleges and universities to understand the impact of failing to accommodate individuals with disabilities.

2: This letter demonstrates the broad range of university activities that the OCR considers in an IT accessibility investigation.

3: The University of Cincinnati’s response sets a great example of how colleges should respond to a compliance review and build a sustainable architecture for web accessibility at the institutional level.

In the letter, the OCR clearly defined the technical deficiencies they found and mapped them to the human experience. For example, after noting a “lack of captions on all videos and the inability to operate video controls using assistive technology,” they describe what that means to someone who is deaf:

“Captioning for the audio portion of a video is important, as individuals who are deaf or hard of hearing may not be able to hear the auditory content. Synchronized captioning is also necessary so that a person reading captions can watch the speakers on a video and associate relevant body language and actions with speech.”

The letter covers a broad range of university activities, including personnel, the disability services office, Blackboard, the distance learning program, and the University’s webpages related to admissions, financial aid, disability services, e-learning, library services, athletics, graduate programs, housing, and registration. This demonstrates the breadth of technology, policies, and personnel that the OCR considers in a compliance review.

Since this letter was submitted, the University of Cincinnati has taken a progressive approach to web accessibility. In addition to focusing on the specific compliance issues noted in the letter, they have instead worked to shift the culture around accessibility on campus. They have taken this as an opportunity to remediate existing issues and to systematically change the approach to accessibility at the institutional level.

For the University of Cincinnati, sustaining a high level of accessibility across campus means developing best practices, bringing new staff on board, getting executive sponsorship, and making sure purchases and licensed software are accessible. By building awareness and proactive processes for accessibility, the University of Cincinnati is developing a sustainable architecture for web accessibility at the institutional level. This is exactly what the OCR looks for in response to a compliance review.

University of Phoenix

In June of 2015, the OCR submitted a letter to the University of Phoenix in response to an investigation that originated from a student complaint that the University “discriminated against her and others on the basis of a disability when it switched to a new online learning platform.”

This letter is important because, in the attached resolution agreement, it lays out Web Content Accessibility Guideline (WCAG) 2.0 standards. While WCAG 2.0 is considered the international standard for web accessibility, its guidelines are not referenced in any US federal accessibility laws.

In the letter, the OCR states that “the accessibility of online content and functionality will be measured, initially, according to the following accessible technology standards,” referencing WCAG 2.0 Level AA.

Key Takeaways

1: The OCR thinks WCAG 2.0 Level AA standards should be followed to ensure web accessibility.

2: The OCR believes that students who experienced discrimination in the past due to the inaccessible IT discovered in the investigation should be eligible for “particular forms of relief.”

This suggests that the OCR believes WCAG 2.0 Level AA standards should be followed by colleges and universities to ensure their web content is accessible.

The other interesting thing to come out of this resolution agreement is that it identifies the retroactive damage that may have been incurred by the University’s failure to accommodate students with disabilities in the past. The letter defines remedies for students who may have been impacted by inaccessible IT in the last 24 months. This indicates that the OCR believes that all students impacted by their findings, not just the student who submitted the complaint, should be eligible for relief.

Michigan Department of Education

In June of 2015, the OCR submitted a letter to the Michigan Department of Education (MDE) in response to a complaint in 2014 that their website was inaccessible to persons with disabilities.

Again, this letter is interesting for two reasons. First, it discusses in detail the requirements for online video accessibility in the attached resolution agreement – an accommodation which is not referenced in the ADA or in Section 504 at all, although it has been applied to both laws in investigations, complaints, and lawsuits.

Specifically, they state:

Key Takeaways

1: The OCR has formulated an opinion about online video accessibility, regardless of its specific inclusion in the ADA and Section 504.

2: The OCR considers inaccessible IT a violation of Section 504 and the ADA.

“Ensuring the accessibility of videos includes consideration of a number of elements, including whether a video should be posted to the website or streamed, how the video will be captioned, and how the video should be coded. For example, videos must have captioning synchronized with the audio and must be “verbatim” of spoken words. Ensuring access to the control panel of a video is also critical.”

Another important note about this letter has to do with word choice. In this letter, the OCR specifically states that the MDE was found in violation of Section 504 and the ADA for failing to make their web content accessible. Calling their findings “violations” presumes that even though the law does not currently specify IT accessibility, the OCR interprets it as a requirement.

Dear Colleague Letters to College & University Presidents

Important reading for all colleges and universities are two Dear Colleague letters sent jointly by the DOJ and OCR that put the issue of web accessibility in higher education on the map. The 2010 Dear Colleague letter was sent from the DOJ & OCR to all college and university presidents and highlights how the ADA & Section 504 apply to educational technology.

In 2011, they sent a second Dear Colleague letter and attached FAQ to further clarify the responsibilities dictated in their 2010 letter.

Download the white paper: Roadmap to Web Accessibility in Higher Education

—
This article was updated on August 23, 2017 to reflect the University of Cincinnati’s response to the letter received, as well as their ongoing accessibility efforts.

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