Audio description, caption, and transcript resources
On this page:
Overview
The following resources cover success criteria, best practices, and examples for audio descriptions, captions, and transcripts.
Transcripts
The following resources describe transcript basics.
- Transcripts: Web Accessibility Initiative (WAI) document describing the basics of a transcript, including which media needs a transcript, how to create and present a transcript, and tips for making your transcript more useful.
- Transcripts on the Web: Includes information on best practices for creating a good transcript.
Transcript examples
- The Science of Compassion: Transcript for an episode of NPR's Hidden Brain.
- Khan Academy Introduction to Grammar video: One of many Khan Academy videos that use interactive transcripts. The interactive transcript is located in the tab below the image.
Captions
The following resources describe basics for closed captions.
- DCMP Captioning Key: A thorough resource from the Described and Captioned Media Program with information on how to present captions, including font, punctuation, line breaks, placement, and duration.
- CADET (Caption and Description Editing Tool): A free downloadable tool from the National Center for Accessible Media (NCAM) at WGBH to help you import, edit and export caption files.
- Captions and Subtitles: WAI document on captions, including which media needs captions, how to create captions, and best practices for displaying captions.
- BBC Subtitle Guidelines: This BBC resource offers information on subtitling, including how to caption intonation and emotion, accents, and humor.
Captioning examples
- Video Captions: This closed captioned video from WAI explains the benefits of captions. An audio description track and a transcript are also provided for the video.
- Closed Captioning: More Ingenious Than You Know (video): This YouTube video explores the history of captions with manually created closed captions included.
Audio descriptions
The following resources describe some basics for audio descriptions.
- Audio Description of Visual Information: WAI document on audio description, including which media needs audio description, methods, and how to create audio descriptions.
- DCMP Description Key: A thorough resource from the Described and Captioned Media Program with information on what to describe and how to describe that content.
- DCMP Description Tip Sheet: A quick reference, this is a brief overview of the more thorough DCMP Description Key.
- Netflix Audio Description Style Guide: This style guide covers the content of descriptions, voice casting, and technical details like audio mix.
- Providing Spoken Descriptions of Visual Content: This short article from the University of Colorado Boulder extends audio description to spoken presentations, including an example for describing a slide.
Audio description examples
The following links are movies and an Indiana University video featuring audio descriptions.
- Frozen (trailer)
- Pip: An Animated Film
- The Interviewer
- Nosferatu (silent film)
- Tech Things: UITS student guide 2019
Learn more
The following resources will get you started with the basics for audio descriptions, captions, transcripts, and subtitles.
- Making Audio and Video Media Accessible: WAI resource on captions, subtitles, transcripts, and audio description, including why they are important, planning your media to include them, and which WCAG standards apply to different types of media.
- Captions, Transcripts, and Audio Descriptions: From WebAIM, this article describes captions, transcripts, and audio descriptions. It goes into detail on each subject, including examples.
- Add Text Transcripts for Video and Audio Elements: A short article from Deque University about transcripts and methods for providing them.
- Creating Accessible Videos: A University of Colorado Boulder resource with tips for pre-production, production, and post-production, including captioning, graphics, audio descriptions, transcripts and summaries, and accessible media players.
- Video Captions & Transcripts: An article from the University of Minnesota describing captions and transcripts. Explains what they are, who benefits from them, and how to add captions to YouTube videos.
- Accessible Technology – Videos: Article from the University of Washington describing captions, audio descriptions, live captions, and transcripts.
- About Audio Description: This short article from the University of California Berkeley includes tips for describing academic videos.
- Live Versus Pre-recorded Audio Description: Explains the differences between pre-recorded and live audio descriptions.
Success criteria
The following are the relevant Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) to meet WCAG 2.0 AA standards for video and audio files.
- Audio-only must have a transcript while pre-recorded video-only must have an audio description or a text alternative that presents the information in the video: Audio-only and Video-only (Prerecorded): WCAG 2.1 SC 1.2.1
- Pre-recorded videos with audio must have the following:
- Accurate closed captions: Captions (Prerecorded): WCAG 2.1 SC 1.2.2
- Synchronized audio description: Audio Description (Prerecorded): WCAG 2.1 SC 1.2.5
- Live video must have closed captions: Captions (Live): WCAG 2.1 SC 1.2.4
Note:If the video has accurate closed captions, synchronized audio description, and a detailed transcript, it meets AAA standards.
Related documents
This is document awuf in the Knowledge Base.
Last modified on 2023-05-15 16:15:43.