Skip to main content

1.2.8 - Media Alternative (Prerecorded) - AAA

Intent​

Make audiovisual material available to individuals whose vision is too poor to read captions and whose hearing is too poor to hear dialogue and audio descriptions by providing an alternative in a text form.

info

All of the points about the transcript text alternative from the 1.1.1 - Non-text Content - A apply to this criterion, the rest (about other text alternatives) is not a part of this criterion.

Conformance​

Three WCAG criteria overlap with each other due to the conformance:

These 3 criteria exist to give you a choice for a minimum conformance level:

  • If you want to conform only to level A, you can choose between including either transcript or audio description.
  • If you want to conform to level AA, including only audio description is enough for the conformance. However, including both transcript and audio description is best for users.
  • If you want to conform to level AAA, you must include both the transcript and the audio description, because in order to conform to level AAA you also need to meet all the level A and AA criteria first.

Test Your Knowledge​

The transcript needs to include all dialogues, but does not have to describe the visual information. True or false?

False - The transcript must have identified speakers (if there is more than one) and must cover all dialogues, important sound effects (laughter, off-screen voices, etc.), and all visual information including actions and expressions of actors. It may also contain timestamps when necessary.