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Re: Success Criterion 1.2.3 - transcripts and audio description

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From: Andrew Kirkpatrick
Date: Jun 10, 2011 10:15PM

On the Understanding Success Criterion 1.2.3 page [ http://www.w3.org/TR/UNDERSTANDING-WCAG20/media-equiv-audio-desc.html], Note
1 says "if all of the information in the video track is already provided in the audio track, no audio description is necessary." On that same page, Note
2 says that "in Success Criterion 1.2.3, authors do have the choice of providing either an audio description or a full text alternative."

Let's say we have an audio-video clip for which the video track is purely incidental and adds no additional meaning. In other words, remove the video track, and all the meaningful content remains in the audio track. Does Success Criterion 1.2.3 enable someone to say, "Okay, I'm going to provide an audio description for this video instead of a text transcript, and since there is no information in the video track to add to an audio description, I'm all done." For instance, could someone in this case provide an additional audio description track that is effectively empty or silent, and reasonably claim that they've complied with 1.2.3?

Yes, I believe that they would be able to say that they are all done, and the empty audio description track is not necessary.

Or, because there is no meaningful audio description to provide, does 1.2.3 thereby require that a transcript be provided?

No, I don't think so. A transcript is still useful of course, particularly for users who are deaf-blind, but I don't think that it is required in this case.

AWK