developing Core requirement

Sounds Identified In Audio Descriptions

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

Summary in Plain English

Where sound carries meaning and the video is not decorative, that sound is named or described in the captions and transcript rather than left to be heard.

Why It Matters

A door closing offscreen or an alarm can carry the plot. Deaf and hard-of-hearing viewers only get it if it is written down.

Scope: When This Applies

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

Applies when

there is sound.

Except when

the video is decorative.

W3C Working Group Status

W3C Maturity Status: developing

Track / Group: images-and-media

Open Questions Recorded in the Draft

The editors' own notes (:::ednote) in guidelines/groups/images-and-media/audio-descriptions/sounds-identified-in-audio-descriptions.md. These are the questions the group has written down as unresolved — not a summary of discussion written here.

This includes sound effects and other non-spoken audio content.

W3C Threads on This Provision

No GitHub issue in w3c/wcag3 carries this provision's label, so there is no recorded discussion to show. Cross-cutting threads that name no provision are listed on the Discussions page.

W3C Raw Source Text

Verbatim from guidelines/groups/images-and-media/audio-descriptions/sounds-identified-in-audio-descriptions.md · informative document: informative/guidelines/images-and-media/audio-descriptions/sounds-identified-in-audio-descriptions.md

Sounds needed to understand the media are identified or described in captions and transcripts.

:::ednote
This includes sound effects and other non-spoken audio content.
:::

:::applies-when
- there is sound.
:::

:::except-when
- the video is decorative.
:::