Copyright, accessibility and quality in digital media
The rules and considerations that make your work legal useful for all and professionally sound
Safety in digital media is rarely about machinery that can hurt you. It is about working legally and properly: respecting who owns a work, protecting people's information and making products everyone can use. These are rules that are just as binding as any workshop safety regulation.
§Copyright — other people's work belongs to others
Images, music, video, text and fonts are generally protected by copyright. This means that the creator of the work decides whether and how it can be used. You cannot just download an image from the internet and put it in a customer's material. You must have permission — either by using material you created yourself, by purchasing a license, or by using material explicitly released for use. Knowing the difference between 'free to view' and 'free to use' is crucial.
§Licenses and usage rights
When you can use material it almost always happens under specific terms — a license. Some licenses require crediting the creator; some allow only non-commercial use; some apply only to one project or one platform. Read the terms and save documentation that you have permission. If the customer is later asked you must be able to show where material comes from and that it's used within the license.
§Personal data and privacy
If you work with images of people or with data about users, you must take care of their information. People have the right to decide about images of themselves, and personal data may only be processed for a lawful purpose and with appropriate security. On the web, this means among other things that you do not collect unnecessary data, and that you are honest about what is collected. Handle people's information as you yourself would want yours handled.
§Accessibility — products everyone can use
A good digital product can be used by as many people as possible including people with reduced vision hearing or movement. On the web this means among other things sufficient contrast between text and background alternative text for images so a screen reader can describe them and that you can operate the site without a mouse. Accessibility is not decoration added at the end — it should be thought in from the start and for public solutions it is also a requirement.
§Quality assurance in practice
Quality is not luck; it is a procedure. It means proofreading text, checking images for errors and wrong resolution, checking colour space and measurements before delivery, and getting a colleague to look at the product with fresh eyes. A checklist you follow every time catches the mistakes tiredness would otherwise let slip through. Those who consistently quality-assure deliver more calmly and make fewer costly mistakes.
§When you work with physical equipment
Even in a trade that is mostly digital there is physical safety: good working position and breaks to avoid injury from many hours at the screen correct handling of heavy equipment and ordinary caution around power and cables. Good working posture and regular breaks is the safety that follows you throughout your career.
“In this trade, skill is measured not only on whether it looks good, but on whether it is made lawfully and can be used by everyone.”
— Professional view on responsibility in digital media.