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WCAG 1.2.3 Text Transcripts or Audio Descriptions

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From: David Ashleydale
Date: Aug 16, 2012 1:32PM

Hi,

I wish WCAG were written a little more clearly, but I think I've finally
discovered a nuance of 1.2.3 that I had missed during my previous 100
readings of it.

I now interpret 1.2.3 as saying that it is considered satisfied without
anyone doing anything as long as the video in question has no content that
is not also present in the default audio track. For example, if I have a
video that consists entirely of a talking head that is explaining a new
banking service -- and there are no visual cues that a non-sighted user
could miss -- neither a text transcript nor an audio description track are
needed to satisfy 1.2.3. A text transcript or an audio description track
are needed only if there is some content in the video that is only
presented visually. An example of this would be that in the video, one
person quietly approaches another and slips a note into their pocket
without them noticing, then quietly slips away. A non-sighted user of this
video would have no indication this happened unless a text transcript that
described this action or a user-selectable audio track with another
narrator who explained this action when it occurred are provided. In that
case, 1.2.3 would require that either a text transcript or an audio
description track be provided.

Am I finally interpreting 1.2.3 correctly? I had previously thought that
1.2.3 was telling me that all videos need text transcripts to be available,
except in the case where some content is presented visually and not
aurally, and an audio description track is provided. In that case 1.2.3
would be satisfied by the audio description. But my interpretation was that
if the video did not have content that was presented visually not aurally,
it would still need a text transcript.

I find that making text transcripts available for every video is a good
customer experience best practice anyway, and I plan on adding it to our
company's video publishing requirements. But now when someone asks me if
making the transcript available for videos that are fully explained in
their default audio tracks is because of trying to conform to WCAG, I will
say no. We just do it because it's good for usability.

Make sense?

David Ashleydale