• Success Criterion 1.2.5
  • Conformance level AA

Transcript Offered Instead of a Required Audio Description Track

1.2.5 — Audio Description (Prerecorded)

Scenario

Setting

An email client's compose window

What’s wrong

At AA, providing only a transcript and no audio description when pauses exist to accommodate description (transcript satisfied 1.2.3 but not 1.2.5).

Example 

<video src="/release-notes/v12-whats-new.mp4" controls></video>
<a href="/release-notes/v12-transcript.html">Read the transcript</a>
<!-- Video has clear 4-6 second pauses between narrated points, ideal
     for audio description, but only a transcript was produced -->

Why it matters

A blind user watching the release-notes video live, rather than reading a separate transcript afterward, gets no in-context description of the new toolbar icons shown during the pauses.

How to test

Check whether only a transcript (no audio description) is provided even though the video has pauses that could carry description: at AA level, transcript alone is insufficient here.

How to fix

A transcript satisfies 1.2.3, but Level AA under 1.2.5 additionally requires an audio description track whenever the video has pauses that can carry one.

<video src="/release-notes/v12-whats-new.mp4" controls>
  <track kind="descriptions" src="/release-notes/v12-whats-new-ad.vtt" srclang="en" label="Audio description">
</video>
<a href="/release-notes/v12-transcript.html">Read the transcript</a>

Outcome

A blind user watches the release video straight through and hears each new icon described as it appears.

Who is affected

Blind and low-vision users who want to follow the video itself, not switch to a separate document, are left without the pause-timed descriptions 1.2.5 requires at this level.

Learn more

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