Examples of alternative formats for time-based media are transcripts, captions, and audio descriptions, and are intended for people with disabilities who may not be able to adequately interpret information in a given format. Alternative formats benefit users with a disability, but can also benefit users who can not situationally participate in a given medium, such as, you may not be able to listen to an audio file out loud in a quiet area, but you can read a transcript of the file, or follow along with captions while a video plays on silent. There are two types of time-based media: pre-recorded and live. Pre-recorded media requires captions and audio descriptions for video, and transcripts are required for audio-only files. Live audio content requires captions to be provided, for example, if you had a visiting guest speaker in your classroom, you would need to hire a person to transcribe their speech to a screen, or if hosting a web conference, a section would need to be provided with some format of text-to-speech software that would turn someone’s words into text on the screen. By providing alternative formats to time-based media, you are ensuring all users can easily access the intended information.
Guideline 1.2
An alternative format is provided for all audio only and video only files
Captions are provided for all prerecorded audio content in synchronized media
And audio description or alternative media format is provided for all prerecorded video content
Captions are provided for all live audio content in synchronized media
An audio description is provided for all prerecorded video content in synchronized media
Sign language interpretation is provided for all prerecorded audio content in synchronized media
An extended audio description file is provided for all prerecorded video content in synchronized media that describes all sensory details in the video