• Success Criterion 1.2.3
  • Conformance level A

Transcript That Only Covers Dialogue, Not What’s On Screen

1.2.3 — Audio Description or Media Alternative (Prerecorded)

Scenario

Setting

A food delivery app's restaurant menu

What’s wrong

"Transcript" provided is dialogue-only — omits descriptions of important visual content, so it isn't a valid media alternative.

Example

<video src="walkthrough.mp4"></video>

Why it matters

Blind and low-vision viewers who hear dialogue but miss unique visual information.

How to test

Read the 'transcript' provided: if it only records spoken dialogue and skips describing important visuals (who did what, what appeared on screen), it fails.

How to fix

An audio description or a full descriptive transcript covering all important visual information must be provided.

<video src="walkthrough.mp4">
  <track kind="descriptions" src="desc-en.vtt" srclang="en">
</video>
<a href="walkthrough-transcript.html">Full text alternative</a>

A descriptions track or full transcript covers on-screen information dialogue never mentions.

Outcome

On a food delivery app's restaurant menu, this barrier is gone for blind and low-vision viewers who hear dialogue but miss unique visual information — they reach the same outcome without extra effort.

Who is affected

Blind and low-vision viewers who hear dialogue but miss unique visual information.

Learn more