developing Core requirement
Descriptive Transcripts Available
Summary in Plain English
Prerecorded audio and video have a descriptive transcript - one that covers the visuals as well as the speech. Purely decorative media, media that is already an alternative for text and labelled as such, and video whose picture adds nothing to the audio are exempt.
Why It Matters
A transcript is the one format that can be read at any speed, searched, translated, and rendered in braille. It serves deafblind users, who have no route through either captions or audio description.
Scope: When This Applies
The draft's own conditions, quoted from guidelines/groups/images-and-media/transcripts/descriptive-transcripts-available.md.
Except when
- The media is purely decorative.
- The media is already a media alternative for text and is clearly labeled as such.
- The visual track includes no information that is not already conveyed in the audio track (for example, a “talking head” video where only the speaker is visible against a static background).
Examples from the Draft
Worked examples the W3C editors wrote into the provision itself, not examples invented here.
- actions
- charts or informative visuals
- scene changes
- on-screen text