Success Criterion 1.2.2
Conformance level A

Transcript Offered Instead of Required Synchronized Captions

1.2.2 — Captions (Prerecorded)

Scenario

Setting

A social media platform's settings menu

What’s wrong

Only a transcript provided when synchronized captions are required (transcript alone doesn't satisfy 1.2.2).

Example

<video src="/help/privacy-settings-walkthrough.mp4" controls></video>
<a href="/help/privacy-settings-transcript.pdf">Download transcript (PDF)</a>

Why it matters

A deaf user trying to follow the privacy walkthrough has to pause the video, switch to a separate PDF, and manually match paragraphs to what's happening on screen.

How to test

Look for a caption track (CC) on the video: if only a separate transcript link is offered with no synchronized captions, it fails Level A.

How to fix

A transcript is a nice addition but doesn't satisfy 1.2.2 on its own; prerecorded video with audio needs synchronized captions.

<video src="/help/privacy-settings-walkthrough.mp4" controls>
  <track kind="captions" src="/help/privacy-settings-walkthrough.vtt" srclang="en" label="English">
</video>
<a href="/help/privacy-settings-transcript.pdf">Download transcript (PDF)</a>

Outcome

A deaf user follows each privacy toggle exactly as it's clicked, without flipping between two windows.

Who is affected

Deaf and hard-of-hearing users lose the ability to follow the video in real time, since a static transcript can't stay synced with what's currently on screen.

Learn more

Understanding Understanding document (opens in a new tab)