All non-text content (images, video, audio, buttons, and content that isn’t relayed by text) needs to have a text alternative that conveys the same information found in the content.
Purely decorative content (e.g. dividing line between nav bar and content) does not need alt text.
What to do:
- add alt text and/or descriptions to images
- provide text transcripts for media
- programmatically label form fields and buttons
Resources:
- How to add alt text (YouTube – 3 min 26 secs)
- How to create text transcripts for free (YouTube – 1 min 29 seconds)
- How to format a text transcript
- Best practices for text transcripts
- How to embed text transcript with HappyScribe ($12 to start)
- Video transcript plugin from 3playmedia (pricing not revealed, likely expensive)
- How to embed a text transcript using HTML (complicated – not for beginners)
Plain English Explanation:
This success criteria comes down to making sure everything on your website has a text equivalent.
Alt text is fairly easy to understand and implement (see video) but incorporating text transcripts into the flow and design of your website may be tricky.
A text transcript can convey the speakers names and roles and what they say. A full text description will convey other relevant information contained within a video.
You can always copy and paste a full text transcript directly below a video but this is not a viable option for many websites. Another option is to create a descriptive link below the video (e.g. text transcript for video) and include the full text transcript on another page. A smoother option is to have the text transcript available in the page itself. I have provided two hands off, paid options in the resources.
I will continue to research low cost text transcript options or create my own. All subscribers to accessible.org will be alerted when I find or create new options.
