Skip to content

Proposed Video element visual content has audio description

Description

This rule checks that non-streaming video elements have all visual information also contained in the audio.

Applicability

This rule applies to every non-streaming video element that is visible where the video contains audio.

Expectation

The visual information of each test target is available through its audio, or through an audio description track.

Assumptions

This rule assumes that a mechanism is available to start the video and that the video element is not simply used to display the poster.

Accessibility Support

There are only a few implementations of video players (without third party technologies) that support audio description tracks at the time of writing.

Background

Bibliography

Accessibility Requirements Mapping

Input Aspects

The following aspects are required in using this rule.

Test Cases

Passed

Passed Example 1

Open in a new tab

A video element with a voiceover that describes the visual information.

<html lang="en">
	<video controls>
		<source src="/test-assets/rabbit-video/video-with-voiceover.mp4" type="video/mp4" />
		<source src="/test-assets/rabbit-video/video-with-voiceover.webm" type="video/webm" />
	</video>
</html>

Passed Example 2

Open in a new tab

A video element with an audio description.

<html lang="en">
	<link rel="stylesheet" href="https://ozplayer.global.ssl.fastly.net/3.3/ozplayer-core/ozplayer.min.css" />
	<link rel="stylesheet" href="https://ozplayer.global.ssl.fastly.net/3.3/ozplayer-skin/highlights-blue.css" />
	<link rel="stylesheet" href="https://ozplayer.global.ssl.fastly.net/3.3/transcript.css" />

	<figure id="ozplayer-1-container" class="ozplayer-container">
		<div data-controls="stack" class="ozplayer" id="ozplayer-1">
			<video controls="controls" preload="none">
				<source src="/test-assets/rabbit-video/video.mp4" type="video/mp4" />
			</video>
			<audio data-default="default" preload="none">
				<source src="/test-assets/rabbit-video/audio-description.mp3" type="audio/mp3" />
			</audio>
		</div>
	</figure>

	<script src="https://ozplayer.global.ssl.fastly.net/3.3/ozplayer-core/mediaelement.min.js"></script>
	<script src="https://ozplayer.global.ssl.fastly.net/3.3/ozplayer-core/ozplayer.free.js"></script>
	<script src="https://ozplayer.global.ssl.fastly.net/3.3/ozplayer-lang/en.js"></script>
	<script src="https://ozplayer.global.ssl.fastly.net/3.3/config.js"></script>
</html>

Failed

Failed Example 1

Open in a new tab

A video element without an audio description.

<html lang="en">
	<video controls>
		<source src="/test-assets/rabbit-video/video.mp4" type="video/mp4" />
		<source src="/test-assets/rabbit-video/video.webm" type="video/webm" />
	</video>
</html>

Failed Example 2

Open in a new tab

A video element with an incorrect audio description.

<html lang="en">
	<video controls>
		<source src="/test-assets/rabbit-video/video-with-incorrect-voiceover.mp4" type="video/mp4" />
		<source src="/test-assets/rabbit-video/video-with-incorrect-voiceover.webm" type="video/webm" />
	</video>
</html>

Failed Example 3

Open in a new tab

A video element with an incorrect audio description.

<html lang="en">
	<link rel="stylesheet" href="https://ozplayer.global.ssl.fastly.net/3.3/ozplayer-core/ozplayer.min.css" />
	<link rel="stylesheet" href="https://ozplayer.global.ssl.fastly.net/3.3/ozplayer-skin/highlights-blue.css" />
	<link rel="stylesheet" href="https://ozplayer.global.ssl.fastly.net/3.3/transcript.css" />

	<figure id="ozplayer-1-container" class="ozplayer-container">
		<div data-controls="stack" class="ozplayer" id="ozplayer-1">
			<video controls="controls" preload="none">
				<source src="/test-assets/rabbit-video/video.mp4" type="video/mp4" />
			</video>
			<audio data-default="default" preload="none">
				<source src="/test-assets/rabbit-video/incorrect-audio-description.mp3" type="audio/mp3" />
			</audio>
		</div>
	</figure>

	<script src="https://ozplayer.global.ssl.fastly.net/3.3/ozplayer-core/mediaelement.min.js"></script>
	<script src="https://ozplayer.global.ssl.fastly.net/3.3/ozplayer-core/ozplayer.free.js"></script>
	<script src="https://ozplayer.global.ssl.fastly.net/3.3/ozplayer-lang/en.js"></script>
	<script src="https://ozplayer.global.ssl.fastly.net/3.3/config.js"></script>
</html>

Inapplicable

Inapplicable Example 1

Open in a new tab

A video element without audio.

<html lang="en">
	<video controls>
		<source src="/test-assets/rabbit-video/silent.mp4" type="video/mp4" />
		<source src="/test-assets/rabbit-video/silent.webm" type="video/webm" />
	</video>
</html>

Inapplicable Example 2

Open in a new tab

A video element that is not visible.

<html lang="en">
	<video controls style="display: none;">
		<source src="/test-assets/rabbit-video/video.mp4" type="video/mp4" />
		<source src="/test-assets/rabbit-video/video.webm" type="video/webm" />
	</video>
</html>

Glossary

Non-streaming media element

A non-streaming media element is an HTML Media Element for which the duration property is not 0.

Outcome

An outcome is a conclusion that comes from evaluating an ACT Rule on a test subject or one of its constituent test target. An outcome can be one of the three following types:

Note: A rule has one passed or failed outcome for every test target. When there are no test targets the rule has one inapplicable outcome. This means that each test subject will have one or more outcomes.

Note: Implementations using the EARL10-Schema can express the outcome with the outcome property. In addition to passed, failed and inapplicable, EARL 1.0 also defined an incomplete outcome. While this cannot be the outcome of an ACT Rule when applied in its entirety, it often happens that rules are only partially evaluated. For example, when applicability was automated, but the expectations have to be evaluated manually. Such “interim” results can be expressed with the incomplete outcome.

Visible

Content perceivable through sight.

Content is considered visible if making it fully transparent would result in a difference in the pixels rendered for any part of the document that is currently within the viewport or can be brought into the viewport via scrolling.

Content is defined in WCAG.

For more details, see examples of visible.

Rule Versions

This is the first version of this ACT rule.

Implementations

This section is not part of the official rule. It is populated dynamically and not accounted for in the change history or the last modified date.

Implementation Type Consistency Report
Alfa (semi-automated) 0.57.2 Semi-automated tool Consistent Alfa (semi-automated) Report
Back to Top

This is an unpublished draft preview that might include content that is not yet approved. The published website is at w3.org/WAI/.