a11y teacher edition W3C WCAG 2.2 & WCAG 3.0 draft reference
Plain English Accessibility Hub

Translating W3C Standards for Designers, Developers, QA & Product teams

โš ๏ธ W3C Working Draft Notice

WCAG 3.0 is an active W3C Working Draft in development by the AGWG. Requirements, assertions, the conformance model and reporting tiers are still being developed and may change. The latest published draft is the 10 September 2026 Working Draft; this site follows the editorsโ€™ draft, which also includes exploratory provisions.

developing Supplemental requirement

Audio Descriptions Controllable

Group: images-and-media • Guideline: audio-descriptions

Summary in Plain English

There is a way to turn audio descriptions on and off, unless they are baked into the recording and cannot be separated.

Why It Matters

Description is welcome to some listeners and intrusive to others sharing the same screen. Control is what lets both use the same content.

Scope: When This Applies

The draft's own conditions, quoted from guidelines/groups/images-and-media/audio-descriptions/audio-descriptions-controllable.md.

Except when

  • Audio descriptions are hard-coded into the audio or video content.