a11y teacher edition W3C WCAG 2.2 & WCAG 3.0 draft reference
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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 Core requirement

Extended Audio Descriptions Available

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

Summary in Plain English

Where the natural gaps in the soundtrack are too short to describe what is on screen, the video pauses so that a longer description can be given.

Why It Matters

Dense visual content cannot be described in the pauses a soundtrack happens to leave. Pausing is the only way to convey it without cutting information.

Scope: When This Applies

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

Applies when

  • the existing pauses in a soundtrack are not long enough.