1.2.3 Audio Description or Media Alternative (Prerecorded)

Captions help people who cannot hear. Audio descriptions help people who cannot see. An audio description is a spoken narration added to a video during natural pauses in dialogue, describing what is happening visually.

At Level A you have two options: add an audio description track to the video, or provide a full written text alternative that describes both the audio and visual content. The written alternative option is only available at Level A. At Level AA, criterion 1.2.5 requires an actual audio description track.

For simple videos where the dialogue already describes what is happening visually, no additional audio description is needed. A presenter saying 'as you can see in the chart on screen, sales rose by 30 per cent' has already described the visual.

If you provide a written text alternative instead of an audio description track, it must be a complete description: actions, on-screen text, speaker identification, and all visual information.

Link to the text alternative directly from the video so it is easy to find.

• Tutorial video where on-screen actions are never described in the audio and no written alternative is provided
• Presentation video where slide content is shown but never read aloud or described
• Video where names, phone numbers, or URLs appear on screen but are not spoken or available in text

This criterion allows the written text alternative as a shortcut. Criterion 1.2.5 at Level AA removes that option and requires a proper audio description track. If you are aiming for AA compliance, skip the text alternative shortcut and go straight to the audio description.