Audio Description | Accessibility
Standards Based Development
Audio Description Icons
Audio Description involves the accessibility of the visual images of theater, television, movies, and other art forms for people who are blind/visually impaired. Audio Description is a narration service (provided at no additional charge to the user) that attempts to describe what the sighted person takes for granted -- those images that a person who is blind/visually impaired formerly could only experience through the whispered asides from a sighted companion.
Audio Descrition in theaters, museums, and accompanying television, film, and video presentations is commentary and narration which guides the listener through the presentation with concise, objective descriptions of new scenes, settings, costumes, body language, and "sight gags", all slipped in between portions of dialogue or songs.
An audio description allows people who are blind/vision impaired to still have access to your videos by providing a descriptive narration of the video's visual elements. Audio Description should be edited so that it fills in the gaps between dialogue, and other important audio elements.
Like captions, audio descriptions can be either open or closed. Open audio description will be heard by any user playing the video, while a closed audio description can be turned off/on by the user.
An audio description (or a full text alternative) must be provided for all pre-recorded audio-video content in order to be compliant with wcag 2.0 Level A. To meet wcag 2.0 Level AA, all pre-recorded audio-video must be audio described, replacing the full text alternative available in Level A. wcag 2.0 Level AAArequires an extended audio description for pre-recorded audio-video.
Note: there is no wcag 2.0 requirement for providing an audio description for live audio-video content.
Note: WGBH Media Access is the largest supplier of captioning and description services, although they call theirs dvs.
Audio Description Guidelines
- Guidelines for Audio Description Standards
- Description Key
- Guidelins for Audio Description on Videos