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Perceivable · Level AA · 1.2.5

Audio Description (Prerecorded)

At AA, prerecorded video with important silent visual content needs an actual audio description track — the text-alternative option that 1.2.3 allows at Level A is no longer sufficient here.

  • Blind
  • Low vision
  • Cognitive

How to recognize it

Same underlying gap as 1.2.3 — a video where dialogue doesn't cover everything important happening on screen — but check specifically whether an audio description track exists, not just a linked text document. A page that satisfies 1.2.3 by offering only a full text description of the video, with no narrated audio description track, passes Level A but fails this Level AA criterion. Beyond blind and low-vision viewers, people with cognitive limitations who find it hard to visually interpret what's happening on screen benefit from having it narrated too.

How to fix it

Add a genuine audio description track that narrates the important visual information during natural pauses in the existing dialogue. If a full text alternative was already produced to satisfy 1.2.3, it isn't enough on its own anymore — an actual audio-narrated description track needs to exist alongside the video.

Example

Avoid

<video src="tutorial.mp4" controls></video>
<p><a href="/tutorial-full-description">Full text description of this video</a></p>
<!-- satisfies 1.2.3, but no audio description track exists -->

Prefer

<video src="tutorial.mp4" controls>
  <track kind="descriptions" src="tutorial-ad.vtt" srclang="en" label="Audio description">
</video>

Resources