Techniques for WCAG 2.0

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G69: Providing an alternative for time based media

Important Information about Techniques

See Understanding Techniques for WCAG Success Criteria for important information about the usage of these informative techniques and how they relate to the normative WCAG 2.0 success criteria. The Applicability section explains the scope of the technique, and the presence of techniques for a specific technology does not imply that the technology can be used in all situations to create content that meets WCAG 2.0.

Applicability

General technique. Applies to all technologies

This technique relates to:

Description

The purpose of this technique is to provide an accessible alternative way of presenting the information in a synchronized media presentation.

In a synchronized media presentation, information is presented in a variety of ways including:

In order to present the same information in accessible form, this technique involves creating a document that tells the same story and presents the same information as the synchronized media. Such a document is sometimes called a screenplay. It includes all the important dialogue and actions as well as descriptions of backgrounds etc. that are part of the story.

If an actual screenplay was used to create the synchronized media in the first place, this can be a good place to start. In production and editing however, the synchronized media usually changes from the screenplay. For this technique, the original screenplay would be corrected to match the dialogue and what actually happens in the final edited form of the synchronized media.

In addition, some special types of synchronized media include interaction that has to occur at particular places in the playing of the synchronized media. Sometimes it may result in an action taking place (e.g., something is purchased, sent, done, etc.). Sometimes it may change the course of the synchronized media (e.g., the synchronized media has multiple paths that are determined by user input). In those cases links or some other mechanism would be used in the alternative for time-based media to allow people using the alternative to be able to have the same options and abilities as those using the synchronized media.

Examples

Resources

No resources available for this technique.

Tests

Procedure

  1. View the synchronized media presentation while referring to the alternative for time-based media.

  2. Check that the dialogue in the alternative for time-based media matches the dialogue in the synchronized media presentation.

  3. Check that the alternative for time-based media has descriptions of sounds.

  4. Check that the alternative for time-based media has descriptions of setting and setting changes.

  5. Check that the alternative for time-based media has descriptions of actions and expressions of any 'actors' (people, animals etc).

  6. If the alternate version(s) are on a separate page, check for the availability of link(s) to allow the user to get to the other versions.

Expected Results

If this is a sufficient technique for a success criterion, failing this test procedure does not necessarily mean that the success criterion has not been satisfied in some other way, only that this technique has not been successfully implemented and can not be used to claim conformance.