Audio Description or Media Alternative (Prerecorded)
Tier 1 · The normative floor
Baseline compliance
What the normative text of WCAG 2.2 requires, and nothing more. Only a failure of this tier is a WCAG failure.
The bare minimum
Prerecorded video with sound has either a full text alternative for time-based media or audio description of the video. Media that is a clearly labeled alternative for text is exempt.
Normative text
Verbatim from WCAG 2.2, W3C Recommendation 12 December 2024. Underlined terms are defined below.
An alternative for time-based media or audio description of the prerecorded video content is provided for synchronized media, except when the media is a media alternative for text and is clearly labeled as such.
Not required by the normative text
Common claims that this criterion does not support. Don't log these as WCAG failures.
- Audio description if a full text alternative is provided. Either option meets Level A; 1.2.5 at AA then requires audio description.
- Extended audio description. That's 1.2.7, Level AAA.
Definitions used (6)
Glossary definitions are normative. Their notes are informative.
- alternative for time-based media
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document including correctly sequenced text descriptions of time-based visual and auditory information and providing a means for achieving the outcomes of any time-based interaction
Informative notes (1)
A screenplay used to create the synchronized media content would meet this definition only if it was corrected to accurately represent the final synchronized media after editing.
- audio description
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narration added to the soundtrack to describe important visual details that cannot be understood from the main soundtrack alone
Informative notes (4)
Audio description of video provides information about actions, characters, scene changes, on-screen text, and other visual content.
In standard audio description, narration is added during existing pauses in dialogue. (See also extended audio description.)
Where all of the video information is already provided in existing audio, no additional audio description is necessary.
Also called "video description" and "descriptive narration."
- prerecorded
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information that is not live
- video
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the technology of moving or sequenced pictures or images
Informative notes (1)
Video can be made up of animated or photographic images, or both.
- synchronized media
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audio or video synchronized with another format for presenting information and/or with time-based interactive components, unless the media is a media alternative for text that is clearly labeled as such
- media alternative for text
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media that presents no more information than is already presented in text (directly or via text alternatives)
Informative notes (1)
A media alternative for text is provided for those who benefit from alternate representations of text. Media alternatives for text may be audio-only, video-only (including sign-language video), or audio-video.
Tier 2 · The gap
Usability & user impact
Where content can meet this criterion and still make things harder for people with disabilities. These are not failures of SC 1.2.3, so raise them as usability defects. Known failures, including failures of related criteria, are listed in Tier 1.
Meeting Level A with a text document means blind users leave the video to read instead of experiencing it with everyone else.
Tier 3 · The golden path
Recommended best practice
The pattern that meets the floor, closes the gap, and avoids audit disputes. A recommendation, not a requirement.
Plan for 1.2.5 from the start. Script videos so that key visual information is spoken in the main narration, which reduces or removes the need for separate description.
W3C's Understanding document and techniques for SC 1.2.3 ↗ are informative: sufficient techniques show ways to pass, and documented failures show common ways to fail, but neither changes what the criterion requires.
How SC 1.2.3 maps to the WCAG 3 draft
From this site's reviewed map to the WCAG 3 editor's draft. It's an interpretation: W3C has not published a mapping.
Successor provisions
From WCAG 2.2, section 5.1: “The main content of WCAG 2.2 is normative and defines requirements that impact conformance claims. Introductory material, appendices, sections marked as "non-normative", diagrams, examples, and notes are informative (non-normative). Non-normative material provides advisory information to help interpret the guidelines but does not create requirements that impact a conformance claim.”