WCAG 2.1 – Criterion 1.2.3 – Audio Description or Text Alternative for Media (Recording) (Level A)

Movies accessible to everyone.

Let’s imagine we have a video material that we want to publish on a well-known platform like YouTube. The recording includes dialogues, music, and a storyline. An audio description or text alternative would be helpful…

What can we do to make the film accessible to blind people?

One option is to add audio description, as shown in the example of the beautiful animated film “The Lion King”: https://lnkd.in/eJCPdfVb. We really like the idea of painting with words. How to describe with words what is happening on the screen? That’s a challenge. I encourage you to read a great article – “Audiodeskrypcja po polsku – Kino w innym wymiarze” [Polish Audio Description – Cinema in Another Dimension]: https://lnkd.in/dFkxsmWA. The mentioned company is already working on a similar model to what we can find on Apple TV, Netflix, or other streaming platforms, to enable audio description from the settings of a particular film.
Today, if we want to have materials with audio description, we primarily need to create two separate videos (for example, through the YouTube platform).
https://lnkd.in/eM2Et8Kw

https://lnkd.in/d_VwEBmG (version with audio description)

Are there any other solutions?

The second option to meet this success criterion is to prepare a video transcription, which should be in close proximity to the video (as seen, for example, on TED Conferences’ websites): https://lnkd.in/d4_Fkr8u

Who is Criterion 1.2.3 for?

For all of us – a blind person can watch material with audio description or read it using a screen reader (transcription). People who do not speak a foreign language can translate the transcription using a popular translator.

Historical curiosity:

In 1981 in the USA, at the Arena Stage theater in Washington, Margaret Pfanstieh (a blind person) and her husband launched the world’s first descriptive narration system for the blind.
Sources:

https://lnkd.in/dh5rjhFJ

https://lnkd.in/ds9uxXAi