RE: Audio Description requirement

Hi Andrew,

No disagreement there. In this scenario I’m working with a team who are putting in a place a very structured approach to their product support pages. They can create a template for the page, the “script” (although there’s no dialogue), and the text version so they work together.

As a user the approach makes sense, I just wanted to be sure they were meeting certain international regulatory requirements as well.

Thanks,

-Alastair



From: Andrew Kirkpatrick

Alastair,
I agree with that but I worry that people lean too heavily on that approach without really comparing the text and video versions and the SC does also indicate that the video needs to be clearly identified as a media alternative to the text. If this last bit isn’t done, then people won’t know if or what they are missing, which is a problem for the user.

IF the media really covers the content of the textual instructions AND the video is labeled as an alternative to the text THEN 1.2.5 is met.

Thanks,
AWK

Andrew Kirkpatrick
Head of Accessibility
Adobe

akirkpat@adobe.com<mailto:akirkpat@adobe.com>
http://twitter.com/awkawk


From: Alastair Campbell <acampbell@nomensa.com<mailto:acampbell@nomensa.com>>
Date: Friday, August 28, 2020 at 10:05 AM
To: WCAG <w3c-wai-gl@w3.org<mailto:w3c-wai-gl@w3.org>>
Subject: Audio Description requirement
Resent-From: WCAG <w3c-wai-gl@w3.org<mailto:w3c-wai-gl@w3.org>>
Resent-Date: Friday, August 28, 2020 at 10:04 AM

Hi Folks,

I’d like to check my assumptions for whether audio description is required for a particular scenario.

If you have a ‘support’ page, e.g. how to use the product I’ve just bought, and it has both:

  *   A pre-recorded video showing you how to use the product.
  *   Full & equivalent instructions on the same page.

Is that required to have audio description at WCAG 2.1 AA?

I’m leaning towards no, because:

  *   1.2.1 & 1.2.3 have “except when the audio or video is a media alternative for text and is clearly labeled as such"
  *   1.2.5 is scoped to the synchronized media<https://www.w3.org/TR/WCAG21/#dfn-synchronized-media> definition, which includes: “unless the media is a media alternative for text that is clearly labelled as such"

So as long as the video is presented as an alternative to the text content, it does not require audio description.

Do others concur?

Kind regards,

-Alastair

--

nomensa.com / @alastc