Disabilities Affected: Visual
For prerecorded synchronized media (like videos), either an audio description or a full text media alternative (transcript including visual descriptions) must be provided, except when the media is already a media alternative for text and labeled as such.
Why It Matters
People who are blind or visually impaired cannot access the visual information in a video (actions, settings, on-screen text, character expressions) unless it’s described. Audio description provides a separate narration track describing key visual elements during natural pauses in the dialogue. A full media alternative (like a detailed transcript) serves the same purpose in text format.
Fixing the Issue
Option 1: Create an audio description track describing important visual details that aren’t conveyed through dialogue. This can be provided as a separate audio file or integrated into a second version of the video.
Option 2: Create a detailed transcript that includes the dialogue, speaker identification, descriptions of meaningful sounds, and descriptions of important visual information. Provide a link to this transcript or the version with audio description near the video player.
Good Code Example
Linking to a transcript that includes visual descriptions:
-
<video controls width="640" height="360">
<source src="main-video.mp4" type="video/mp4">
<track label="English Captions" kind="captions" srclang="en" src="captions_en.vtt" default>
Your browser doesn't support embedded videos.
</track></source><p>
<a href="full_transcript_with_descriptions.html">Read the full transcript (includes visual descriptions)</a>
</p></video>
Bad Code Example
A video with important visual content but no audio description or full media alternative:
-
<video controls src="complex_visual_demo.mp4" width="640" height="360">
<track label="English Captions" kind="captions" srclang="en" src="captions_en.vtt">
</video>
