Blog Post:

Making video content accessible isn't just about compliance, it's about creating inclusive experiences that benefit everyone. Whether you're creating educational content, marketing videos, or entertainment media, understanding the three pillars of video accessibility, captions, transcripts, and audio descriptions, is essential for reaching your entire audience.

Who Needs Video Accessibility

• People who are deaf and cannot hear the audio.
• People who are hard of hearing and cannot hear some of the content.
• People with cognitive and learning disabilities who need to see and hear the content to better understand it.

Beyond serving users with disabilities, accessible video features help in noisy environments, quiet spaces where sound can't be used, and for non-native speakers who benefit from text support.

Understanding WCAG Requirements

Level A Requirements

• Captions are provided for all prerecorded audio content in synchronized media
• An alternative for time-based media or audio description of the prerecorded video content is provided for synchronized media

Level AA Requirements (Most Common Standard)

• Captions are provided for all live audio content in synchronized media
• Audio descriptions must be "provided for all prerecorded video content in synchronized media."

Captions: Your First Line of Accessibility

What Are Captions?

Captions are a text form of audio information in video and animations. This includes the words that are spoken, who is speaking when it is not evident, and important sounds like music, laughter, and noises. Captions must be synchronized with the visual content to contextualize them.

Types of Captions

Closed Captions: The most common type of captions are "Closed" captions, which can be turned on or off. These give users control over their viewing experience.

Open Captions: Permanently embedded in the video and cannot be turned off. Useful when the media player doesn't support closed captions.

Caption Quality Standards

Accessible captions that are: Synchronized to appear at approximately the same time as the corresponding audio. Equivalent to the spoken words and other audio information.

For caption formatting:

• Captions are one or two lines. Generally it is best to keep them under 32 characters per line. Put a new sentence on a new line. If you need to break a sentence into multiple segments, break it at a logical phrase.

What to Include in Captions

Beyond spoken words, include:

• Speaker identification when not obvious
• Important sound effects
• Musical descriptions when relevant to content
• Emotional tone indicators when necessary for understanding

Creating high-quality captions requires knowledge of which non-speech audio information should be included in the captions. It's more art than science, for example, it's not always clear which non-speech audio information to include and how to communicate it in text.

---

Transcripts: The Text Foundation

Types of Transcripts

Basic Transcripts: Basic transcripts are a text version of the speech and non-speech audio information needed to understand the content.

Descriptive Transcripts: Descriptive transcripts also include text description of the visual information needed to understand the content. Descriptive transcripts are required to provide video content to people who are both Deaf and blind.

Who Benefits from Transcripts

Basic transcripts are used by people who are Deaf, are hard of hearing, have difficulty processing auditory information, and others. Descriptive transcripts are needed to provide audio and video content to people who are both Deaf and blind. They are also used by people who process text information better than audio and visual/pictorial information.

Creating Effective Transcripts

Structure and Format:

• Use clear headings and logical paragraphs
• A descriptive transcript can be in a table so that readers can easily read only the audio information down a column if they choose.
• Include timestamps when helpful for navigation
• Break up large blocks of text with relevant images or graphs

Content Guidelines: When authoring transcripts for accessibility purposes, be sure to include text for all audio that is spoken including meaningful sounds. Ask yourself, does leaving out this sound change the story, lesson or experience?

For visual descriptions in transcripts: Include visual descriptions for people who are unable to see the screen, but may have assistive technology read the transcript to them. Include images and text appearing on screen, as appropriate.

Interactive Transcripts

Interactive transcripts highlight text phrases as they are spoken. Users can select text in the transcript and go to that point in the video. This is a feature of the media player. It uses the captions file.

Interactive transcripts are both searchable and clickable, meaning that you can find a specific point in a video and jump to it.

---

Audio Descriptions: Making Visual Content Audible

What Are Audio Descriptions?

These descriptions explain visual information needed to understand the content. (For example, "Pat opens a small box, looks at a diamond engagement ring, and cries".)

Audio descriptions (ADs) verbally describe visual information, including actions, scenery, or gestures. They improve accessibility by providing another way to understand visual media.

When Audio Descriptions Are Needed

As the WCAG authors note, "if all of the information in the video track is already provided in the audio track, no audio description is necessary." For example, if a video simply contains a "talking head" discussing your product, adding additional audio won't improve accessibility.

For WCAG items 1.2.3, 1.2.5, and 1.2.7, if all of the information in the video track is already provided in the audio track, no audio description is necessary.

Types of Audio Description

Integrated Description: Description is included in the main speakers' scripts This is the most effective approach and should be planned during the scripting phase.

Standard Audio Description: Standard audio description is an audio description of the visual elements of a video created for the benefit of users with vision loss. Its voice track is written and recorded to fit the gaps between the existing dialogues and audio elements.

Extended Audio Description: Extended audio descriptions are used in cases where the video does not have enough natural gaps within the soft track. The video is edited to pause at certain points to accommodate the secondary audio track description and ends up increasing the length of the final video.

Implementation Methods

It can be provided as: integrated description: description is included in the main speakers' scripts, alternative video: description is included in a separate video, separate file: description is in a timed text file or synched audio file; must be supported by the media player

Writing Audio Descriptions

Best Practices:

• Try to keep your AD track synchronized with the video. When recording the track, speak clearly at an appropriate pace. If silence or background noises are important, don't talk over them.
• Your AD track doesn't need to fill every moment of silence in the standard audio track. Avoid talking over dialogue, sound effects, and other important sounds.
• Use of Natural pauses in existing soundtrack to insert descriptions of visual elements such as actions, settings, appearance of characters, body language, costumes, lighting, and on-screen text.

Common Challenges and Solutions

Automatic Captions Limitations

Automatic captions can be used as a starting point for developing accurate captions and transcripts. However, they require significant editing for accuracy, especially for:

• Technical terminology
• Proper names
• Non-speech sounds
• Multiple speakers

Resource Planning

Transcribing an audio file is fairly difficult and takes quite a bit of time for people who don't have the software and skill for it. Plan for professional services or allocate sufficient time for in-house production.

Conclusion

Video accessibility through captions, transcripts, and audio descriptions isn't just about meeting legal requirements, it's about creating content that truly serves your entire audience. Short answer: Yes, descriptive transcripts are needed to meet the wide range of user needs.

By implementing these three complementary accessibility features, you create multiple pathways for people to access your content, regardless of their abilities, circumstances, or preferences. The investment in accessibility pays dividends through broader reach, better user experience, and reduced legal risk.

Remember: Multimedia accessibility is easier than you might think. Don't be afraid. For most media, you just need to provide a simple text transcript. Start with what you can implement today, and build your accessibility practices over time.

Resources

• W3.org - Making Audio and Video Media Accessible

---

This blog post is part of the R.E.A.C.H. Accessibility series, helping educators and content creators build more inclusive digital experiences.