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Thread: Audio description for video when there are insufficient gaps
Number of posts in this thread: 4 (In chronological order)
From: Steve Green
Date: Sun, Jun 09 2019 10:06PM
Subject: Audio description for video when there are insufficient gaps
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The WCAG 2.1 AA success criterion 1.2.5 requires that audio description is provided for all pre-recorded video content in synchronized media. How can this success criterion be met when there are insufficient gaps in the audio track to insert an adequate audio description? The success criterion does not allow any exemptions or alternative methods such as a transcript.
I cannot see any alternative other than recreating the video with longer gaps, but clients are really not going to want to do that and it may not even be possible in some cases.
I can't be the first person to encounter this problem, so what have you done in this situation?
Regards,
Steve Green
Managing Director
Test Partners Ltd
020 3002 4176 (direct)
0800 612 2780 (switchboard)
07957 246 276 (mobile)
020 7692 5517 (fax)
Skype: testpartners
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Connect to me on LinkedIn - http://uk.linkedin.com/in/stevegreen2
From: Lucy Greco
Date: Sun, Jun 09 2019 10:23PM
Subject: Re: Audio description for video when there are insufficient gaps
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you can create a described version of the video using stop time description
what this means is the video will pause the description can be inserted and
then the video can start up again take a look at you describe for
information about how to do this
On Sun, Jun 9, 2019, 9:06 PM Steve Green < = EMAIL ADDRESS REMOVED = >
wrote:
> The WCAG 2.1 AA success criterion 1.2.5 requires that audio description is
> provided for all pre-recorded video content in synchronized media. How can
> this success criterion be met when there are insufficient gaps in the audio
> track to insert an adequate audio description? The success criterion does
> not allow any exemptions or alternative methods such as a transcript.
>
> I cannot see any alternative other than recreating the video with longer
> gaps, but clients are really not going to want to do that and it may not
> even be possible in some cases.
>
> I can't be the first person to encounter this problem, so what have you
> done in this situation?
>
> Regards,
> Steve Green
> Managing Director
> Test Partners Ltd
> 020 3002 4176 (direct)
> 0800 612 2780 (switchboard)
> 07957 246 276 (mobile)
> 020 7692 5517 (fax)
> Skype: testpartners
> = EMAIL ADDRESS REMOVED =
> www.testpartners.co.uk
>
> Connect to me on LinkedIn - http://uk.linkedin.com/in/stevegreen2
>
> > > > >
From: glen walker
Date: Sun, Jun 09 2019 11:25PM
Subject: Re: Audio description for video when there are insufficient gaps
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To expand on what Lucy said, if you look at the "understanding" doc for
1.2.5 and scroll to the bottom for the definitions ("key terms"), the
second note for "audio description" talks about an "extended audio
description", which is further defined at
https://www.w3.org/TR/WCAG21/#dfn-extended-audio-description and says,
"audio description that is added to an audiovisual presentation by pausing
the video so that there is time to add additional description". So there
is a concept of pausing the video to allow for an audio description. Not a
pleasant solution, but is possible.
If you go back to the "audio description" definition, it says, "narration
added to the soundtrack to describe *important visual details *that cannot
be understood from the main soundtrack alone". If you don't have
sufficient time for the description and the description is not "important",
then you *might *be ok. Obviously you want to describe as much as you can
but the definition sort of implies that if there are non-important details
and you don't have a sufficient pause then you could maybe leave out those
details. But that doesn't help if the details *are *important and you
don't have a pause. Then it's back to "extended audio description".
However, if you look at 1.2.7 which is a AAA requirement, it specifically
tries to address your situation.
*"Where pauses in foreground audio are insufficient to allow audio
descriptions to convey the sense of the video, extended audio description
is provided for all prerecorded video content in synchronized media."*
Since we have a AAA success criteria to address your situation, that kind
of implies that if you don't have sufficient pauses, you do the best you
can with the current video and that's good enough for 1.2.5. Or at least
that's how I'm interpreting it. Otherwise we wouldn't need 1.2.7.
Glen
From: Mark Magennis
Date: Mon, Jun 10 2019 6:35AM
Subject: Re: [EXTERNAL]Audio description for video when there are insufficient gaps
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Steve,
Here in Skillsoft we use the method described by Lucy. If you take this approach, there are a number of things you should try to ensure to make the experience as good as possible.
- AD is delivered without any obvious transition to the user, and without a screen reader reading anything or making any announcement.
- Users can switch AD on/off on-the-fly.
- Switching on/off the AD does not disrupt the flow of the video, i.e. does not cause the video to re-start.
- If Pause/Play are pressed while the AD is playing, it pauses and plays the audio description, not the video.
- If returning to a partially played video resumes at the point where you left off, this should also happen if the point was in the middle of an AD segment.
Mark
Mark Magennis
Skillsoft | mobile: +353 87 60 60 162
Accessibility Specialist