Perceivable · Level A · 1.2.1
Audio-only and Video-only (Prerecorded)
A prerecorded audio-only clip (a podcast episode) needs a text transcript, and a prerecorded video-only clip (a silent screen-capture with no soundtrack) needs either a text transcript or an audio track — so the information in it isn't locked to one sense.
- Blind
- Low vision
- Deaf / hard of hearing
- Cognitive
How to recognize it
Look for standalone audio files — a podcast, an audio-only interview — with no transcript link anywhere near them: someone deaf or hard of hearing has no way to get that content at all. Separately, look for silent video — a product demo recorded as a screen capture with no narration or sound — with nothing describing what happens in it: someone blind or with low vision can't see it and there's no audio track or text describing the visual events for them either. This criterion doesn't cover ordinary video that already has a synchronized soundtrack (that's captions and audio description, covered elsewhere) — it's specifically about content that's audio-only or video-only from the start.
How to fix it
For audio-only content, provide a text transcript of everything said. For video-only content, provide either a text description of what's shown or a full audio track narrating it. A short accompanying text block or a linked transcript page both satisfy this — the format matters less than making sure the same information is available through a channel that doesn't require seeing or hearing the original.
Example
Avoid
<audio src="episode-12.mp3" controls></audio>
<!-- no transcript link anywhere on the page --><video src="product-demo-silent.mp4" controls></video>
<!-- silent screen capture, no text description or narration -->Prefer
<audio src="episode-12.mp3" controls></audio>
<p><a href="/episode-12-transcript">Read the full transcript</a></p><video src="product-demo-silent.mp4" controls></video>
<p><a href="/product-demo-description">Text description of this demo</a></p>