WebAIM - Web Accessibility In Mind

E-mail List Archives

Re: Can the captions page be corrected?

for

From: Jared Smith
Date: May 7, 2020 11:44AM

> Hello all - when reviewing the page about captions, transcripts, and audio descriptions (https://webaim.org/techniques/captions), this "important" notation was displayed: In order to be fully accessible to the maximum number of users, web multimedia should include both synchronized captions AND a descriptive transcript.
>
> However, per WCAG AA 2.0, multimedia is NOT FULLY ACCESSIBLE unless it also includes Audio/Video Descriptions (AD).

Correct. The sentence you are referring to is within the section on
captions and transcripts. Audio descriptions are covered later in the
page. It wouldn't make sense to discuss the necessity of audio
descriptions before they have even been introduced.

> Of course, there are some instances where ADs are not required like when the existing audio covers all of the key visual elements like someone reading all the text on the slide.

Yes, this is covered at length in the audio descriptions section of the article.

> And the AD section verbiage ("not common", "gaining popularity", etc.) on this page

These are accurate statements.

> seems to minimize its value and treats this as a nice-to-have by creating the perception that no one else is doing it.

The intent is to make it clear that they aren't common, not that they
aren't important - many reading the article have likely never heard
the term "audio description" before.

> ADs are not merely "helpful" only if convenient to provide or something fashionable/popular.

Yes, the article stresses their importance - and encourages better
media production so as to avoid the need for audio description.

> Is it time to update this page to accurately emphasize the need and required compliance of ADs?

I've added some additional content and made some tweaks to better
emphasize this.

Thanks,

Jared