This post is part of a series where we explain Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG), an internationally recognized standard for measuring website accessibility. For more posts in this series, visit our Web Accessibility WCAG 2 Knowledge Base.
As part of our ongoing WordPress accessibility series on WCAG guidelines, we’re turning our attention to another essential requirement: providing audio description and media alternatives for prerecorded video.
While captions support users who are deaf or hard of hearing, the WCAG Success Criterion 1.2.3: Audio Description or Media Alternative (Prerecorded) specifically addresses the needs of people who are blind or have low vision. When your WordPress site features videos with crucial visual information—such as tutorials, product demonstrations, or interviews—offering an audio description or a text alternative ensures every visitor can access and fully understand the content’s message.
In this article, we’ll explore what WCAG 1.2.3 requires, why audio description and media alternatives matter, common pitfalls to avoid, and how to implement accessible video content using WordPress tools and best practices.
What is WCAG 1.2.3 Audio Description or Media Alternative (Prerecorded)?
The Success Criterion 1.2.3 Audio Description or Media Alternative (Prerecorded)(Level A) states:
An alternative for time-based media or audio description of the prerecorded video content is provided for synchronized media, except when the media is a media alternative for text and is clearly labeled as such.
Web Content Accessibility Guidelines 1.2.3
In plain language: If you post prerecorded video content (any video that is not a livestream) and that video conveys information visually—such as actions, text, charts, or demonstrations—you must provide either:
- Audio description: A spoken narration that describes important visual details during pauses in dialogue.
- Media alternative (transcript): A text document that fully describes both the audio and visual information in the video.
This ensures that users who cannot see the video can still access all its meaningful content.
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Why does it matter for WordPress sites?
Imagine uploading a plugin walkthrough to your WordPress site. The video shows how to configure settings in the plugin visually. If you don’t provide an audio description or transcript, visitors who are blind or have low vision would miss critical information about what’s happening on screen and may not know how to configure the plugin.
WCAG 1.2.3 prevents this exclusion by requiring either audio description or a media alternative. Two tools that make content inclusive, ensuring that all users—regardless of vision—can understand and benefit from your videos.
How to meet this Success Criterion in WordPress
If you publish prerecorded video content with important visuals—such as product demos, tutorials, or interviews—WCAG 1.2.3 requires you to provide either audio description or a text-based alternative.
How to create a video with audio description
Audio description adds a spoken narration track that describes important visual details—like actions, scene changes, text on screen, or expressions—so people who are blind or low-vision can fully understand your video.
Creating a version of your video with audio description starts with writing a description script. Here’s how to do it:
- Watch your video with the sound on and note every visual element that conveys meaning but isn’t already explained in the dialogue.
- Write brief descriptions for each important visual element.
- Use an audio recording tool (we use Descript) to record your descriptions.
- Import the narration into your video editing software and sync each line to the appropriate moment in the video, ensuring that the description doesn’t overlap with any spoken audio in the video. In some cases, you may need to insert a freeze frame in the video to give the description more time.
- Export your video with the descriptive audio mixed in, or provide the narration as a separate AD audio track (supported by many web video players).
Good audio description includes narration that explains key visual details (e.g., “The presenter clicks the Settings tab and selects Accessibility Options”).
Example of an audio-described ad with no spoken audio
This short video from Android has only music and visuals with no spoken audio. Someone who is blind would miss all the information conveyed in the video without the audio description.
Example of an audio-described video with spoken audio
This educational video from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) in the U.S. includes spoken audio and freeze frames to extend pauses, allowing audio description to be inserted (an example of extended audio description). Captions on the video reflect both the spoken audio and audio description.
Plan for audio description from the beginning
If you plan for audio description from the beginning when creating your video, you can avoid the need to create separate audio description tracks or audio-described videos.
By writing scripts that naturally describe key visual details, framing shots with clarity in mind, and ensuring all on-screen text is also spoken aloud, your main audio can carry all the information viewers need. This approach—called integrated description—keeps production simpler, reduces editing time, and results in a seamless experience in which all audiences receive the same complete story without needing additional narration.
Additional resources on audio description
To learn more about creating audio description for videos, watch this WordPress Accessibility Meetup recording, Audio Description: If Your Eyes Could Speak with Joel Snyder, founder of the American Council of the Blind’s Audio Description Project.
How to implement audio description in WordPress
There are several ways to add audio description to your videos in WordPress:
- Use a video player that supports multiple audio tracks: Some players allow you to upload an audio description track alongside the main video or to toggle between different videos (described and not described in the same player). Here are some examples:
- Able Player plugin: This free WordPress plugin supports captions, transcripts, and audio descriptions. It works with self-hosted or externally hosted media and lets users toggle accessibility features.
- Vimeo: Vimeo allows you to add multiple audio tracks to the same video. These audio tracks can support multiple languages and also add audio description to videos. How to add multiple audio tracks in Vimeo.
- Wistia: Wistia is a premium video hosting service that supports both standard and extended (where there are pauses in the video) audio description. How to add audio description in Wistia.
- Allow videos to be switched with tabs or other controls: If your video player does not support audio description, you can still meet this success criterion by creating a separate audio-described video and artfully placing it on your WordPress website near the non-described video. The following are all acceptable ways for providing audio description:
- Tabs: Use accessible tabs with the standard video in one tab and the audio-described video in another tab.
- Accordions: Place each video in an accordion that users can expand and collapse to choose the version they want to play.
- Links: Add a link immediately after the video that takes users to the audio-described version on another web page or on a video hosting platform such as YouTube.
WCAG 1.2.3 does not require audio description videos to be located on the same page as the standard video, provided they are easy to find.
Meet WCAG 1.2.3 with a media alternative transcript
A media alternative transcript is a written, text-only version of all the meaningful content in an audio or video file. It includes everything a viewer would need to understand the media without watching or listening: dialogue, important sounds, descriptions of key visuals, speaker identification, and on-screen text. Unlike captions, which reflect only spoken words and certain sounds, media alternative transcripts provide a complete, linear account of what happens in the video from start to finish.
Media alternative transcripts are often easier to create than audio description because you don’t have to time narration to match pauses in the original audio or mix a second audio track into the video.
Instead, you write out the content in a way that conveys visuals clearly on the page. No recording, editing, or synchronization software is required. A transcript can be prepared quickly from a script, a storyboard, or by watching the video, making it a more efficient accessibility solution, especially for videos with simple visuals or where audio description would add unnecessary complexity.
For this reason, we most frequently see our clients meeting 1.2.3 Audio Description or Media Alternative (Prerecorded) with a media alternative instead of audio description.
How to create a media alternative transcript
Here are step by step instructions for creating a media alternative transcript:
- Watch your video from start to finish and note every meaningful element—dialogue, sounds, on-screen text, and visuals that contribute to understanding the story or information.
- You should already have a transcript of the spoken audio in the video from the captioning process. If not, use a captioning tool of your choice to create one.
- Take your existing transcript and insert additional details in the order they occur. Include spoken dialogue, identify speakers, describe important actions or expressions, and include any on-screen text or meaningful sounds.
- Add brief visual descriptions where needed to ensure someone who cannot see the video would understand what’s happening. Keep descriptions clear and concise, focusing only on what adds meaning.
- Review the transcript to make sure it provides a complete, self-contained explanation of the video without requiring the viewer to see or hear anything.
- Publish the transcript directly below your video or link to it from the video player, making sure it’s available in an accessible text format (HTML is preferred).
How to add media alternative transcripts in WordPress
There are multiple options for including transcripts in WordPress websites. They can be added directly below the video, in an accordion or a modal, or accessed via a link to another page. For additional ideas of how to display transcripts on your website, see our Understanding doc for WCAG 1.2.1 Audio-only and Video-only (Prerecorded).
By adding audio description or transcripts, you not only meet WCAG 1.2.3 but also improve comprehension, SEO, and user engagement.
WCAG 1.2.3 Exceptions
There are a few scenarios where WCAG 1.2.3 is not required:
- Purely sensory media: If the video’s purpose is purely sensory (e.g., abstract visuals or ambient sound), and it doesn’t communicate meaningful content, audio description isn’t necessary.
- Live video content: Audio description for live streams is addressed in later success criteria.
- Decorative video: Media that’s purely decorative and doesn’t convey essential information doesn’t require audio description or transcripts.
- Media alternatives for text: Videos that present no more information than is already presented in text (directly or via text alternatives) do not need audio description or media alternative transcripts. For example, a video that shows a mouse clicking through settings in a WordPress plugin does not need to be described if the page it is on already includes a detailed numbered list of each action shown in the video.
Testing 1.2.3 Compliance in WordPress
1. Identify prerecorded video with visual information
- Go through your WordPress site’s pages and posts, looking for videos. To speed this up, use Accessibility Checker Pro to run a full-site scan and then go to the report for “A Video is Present.”
- Create a list of videos to test.
- Once you have a list of videos, watch each one and mark the video-only ones (without spoken audio), or those with spoken audio that are missing descriptions of key visuals. Ask yourself, “If I could only hear this video, would I still have all the important information or know what to do?”
2. Confirm exceptions
Skip videos that are decorative, purely sensory, or live streams.
3. Check for audio description or transcripts
Confirm that each video has either:
- An audio description track, or
- A full transcript describing both audio and visuals.
4. Verify accessibility of alternatives in WordPress
Ensure that transcripts are easy to find, properly labeled, and accessible via screen readers. If using audio description, confirm that the player supports multiple tracks or the page design supports multiple videos and that users can toggle them.
5. Test with assistive technology
Use screen readers like NVDA, JAWS, or VoiceOver to confirm that transcripts are discoverable and usable, and that audio description tracks can be activated.
Test all toggles or controls for accessing audio description or text-based media alternatives with a screen reader to ensure they are properly labelled and have appropriate to ARIA to communicate their state.
Not sure how to use a screen reader? Check out our online courses on screen reader testing.
Start Making Your WordPress Site Accessible Today
WCAG 1.2.3 Audio Description or Media Alternative (Prerecorded) ensures that video content with important visual information is accessible to users who are blind or have low vision. By adding audio description or transcripts, you make your WordPress site more inclusive, usable, and welcoming.
Start small: add transcripts to tutorials, or explore plugins like Able Player to support audio description. Accessibility doesn’t have to be overwhelming—when you build it into your workflow, it becomes a natural part of publishing.
Tools like the Accessibility Checker plugin can help you identify videos right from your WordPress dashboard. Every transcript or audio description you add moves you closer to WCAG compliance and ensures that your content is accessible to everyone.
