WCAG 1.2.3 Audio Description or Media Alternative (Prerecorded) Explained

What is the 1.2.3 Audio Description or Media Alternative Guideline?

To make sure your website is Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) compliant, you need to follow the Website Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG), Levels A and AA. These guidelines are the recognized standard for measuring compliance. This page presents an overview of the Level A 1.2.3 Audio Description or Media Alternative Guideline.

The 1.2.3 Guideline requires audio or text descriptions of any video with sound (also known as synchronized media). This helps present additional information to certain disabled users. These users may be:

• Blind
• Visually impaired
• Cognitively impaired (prefer to read rather than listen to content)
• Non-native speakers of the language being spoken in the video

Why 1.2.3 Audio Description or Media Alternative Is Important

Users who are blind or who have limited vision need a detailed explanation of any video elements on a website page. Usually, dialogue or narration alone isn’t enough. Without more detail, these users won’t be able to grasp the context of what the video is about.

It’s important to include:

• A description of the setting
• The names of those speaking
• What they are doing
• Anything happening in the background
• Non-verbal cues, like a character shrugging

People don’t use the internet just to browse or shop. As an example, most companies today provide employee training through the use of online videos. These companies must adhere to the 1.2.3 Guideline in all of their online training materials so they are accessible to all employees.

What is the Success Criterion?

There are two ways to comply with the 1.2.3 Guideline:

Provide an audio description

You can provide users with an audio description of video elements. It can relay the names of the characters, their actions, scene transitions, settings and the names of songs or type of music playing. Just hearing the dialogue isn’t enough for these users.

Vision impaired users navigate a page through the use of assistive technologies. If you have a detailed audio description of the videos on your website, they can access this information via their screen readers.

Provide a detailed text transcript

Another way to comply with the 1.2.3 Guideline is by providing a text transcript that describes everything that is happening in the video element. Transcripts can also be useful for learners with cognitive impairments who prefer to read rather than listen to content.

One important note, users who are deafblind rely solely on text descriptions that they read via their braille readers to fully comprehend the video elements on a page.

Transcripts can also give more detail because they don’t need to adhere to the time limits of the video like an audio description does. Therefore, text transcripts are the most comprehensive choice for complying with the 1.2.3 Guideline.

Any interactive elements in the video should also be made accessible. If there is a phone number or email address in the video but no link within the page, disabled users can’t access it. It’s important to check for this and provide alternate links.

You can offer either an audio description or a text transcript of the video elements. You don’t have to include both, but if you can give users two options, that’s even better.

Exceptions

If your video provides an alternative to other content, you don’t need to comply with this guideline.

If the audio provides all of the information in the video, a text transcript or audio description isn’t needed. For example, if someone identifies themselves then gives a speech on YouTube without showing any graphics or products, no audio or text descriptions are needed.

Does Your Website Fail the 1.2.3 Audio Description or Media Alternative Guideline?

If your website doesn’t adhere to the 1.2.3 Audio Description or Media Alternative Guideline, we can provide a complete website audit to check for this issue and any other elements on your website that don’t comply with WCAG 2.1 Level A and AA guidelines.

Please visit our WCAG Audit service page for more information on how we can help make your website ADA compliant.