Audio Description

What is Audio Description?

Videos are full of visual information. But for users who can’t see the video, the experience of listening to visual material can make for a very confusing and frustrating experience.

That's where audio description comes into play.  Audio description is like alternative text for video. Audio description provides a narrative explanation of visual or non-verbal information. These narratives/descriptions provide essential information that users need to understand the meaning of visual texts.

Benefits of Audio Description

Audio description can very obviously help individuals with low vision or blindness.  These narratives/descriptions provide essential information that these users can't otherwise access or understand.

At the same time, audio description can also help users listening to content, including:

• Users looking away from screens to write notes while listening
• Students seated in the back of lecture halls
• Commuters who can't look at visual information but who can listen to it being read aloud
• Learners who benefit from seeing and hearing at the same time
• Content creators, who whish to highlight and explain visual aspects of a video that might otherwise be missed or misunderstood

In short, all users can benefit from audio description.

Audio Description Guidelines

Please consider the following guidelines as you create audio descriptions:

• Record videos with narrative included, so adding additional audio description isn't necessary.
• If you are recording a lecture video, describe what you're doing or seeing as you lecture.
• Avoid generic phrases like "this" or "here.
• If you are creating a script for recording a video, plan ahead and build the narrative directly into the script.

Alternatives to Audio Description

If you are unable to provide audio description, one possible alternative is creating a text transcript.  This transcript should provide audio and visual information.  By accessing these types of transcripts, users with both hearing and visual impairments should be able to understand the full content of the video. 

Some possible ways to create this alternative transcript are as follows:

• Start with a transcript based on available captions.  If your video doesn't have captions, request them and edit them if necessary.  Many video platforms will also have a transcript available.  If that's the case, you can use that instead.
• Add a narrative of visual elements to the existing captions/transcript.
• Read the transcript independently of the video.  If it makes sense, then it's done.  If not, go back and revise the transcript until it makes sense with referencing the video.
• Provide the transcript to users in an accessible format, such as Word or PDF file.