Web Governance
Does visual-only video content have an accessible alternative?
Fatima is a 33-year-old woman from Morocco who lost her sight at the age of 12 due to a degenerative eye condition. She works as a radio presenter for a local station in Casablanca focusing on social and cultural issues.
"It is incredibly frustrating when I come across video content on websites that has no audio and no text alternative. As someone who relies on sound to understand and engage with content, it is like hitting a brick wall. Just last week, I was preparing for a segment on youth unemployment in Morocco, and there was a video on a government website showing key statistics and graphs. But there was no narration, no transcript, nothing I could use. All of that information was locked behind visuals I could not access. It is not just about my job either. I love following Andalusian music and cultural trends, but when music tutorials or interviews with artists are just purely visual, I feel like I am missing out. It is exhausting having to ask for help every time, when something as simple as a text description would let me do it on my own. It is like they are saying that my ability to participate does not matter."
This section provides some examples of the issue.
A government website provides a video that displays key statistics on youth unemployment and uses only visual elements like charts, graphs, and animations. The video contains no audio or accompanying text description, and relies entirely on visuals to present the information.
This is a problem for blind users who do not have access to the information conveyed in the video. Without an alternative text description or audio track explaining the visual content, the information remains inaccessible to those who cannot see the video.
A government website provides a video that displays key statistics on youth unemployment using only visual elements like charts, graphs, and animations. The video includes no audio, but underneath, there is an expandable text section that allows users to access the same information presented in the video as text or table data.
Blind or visually impaired users who rely on screen readers can easily navigate to the text section and receive the same information that sighted users get from the video. This ensures that users have access to the critical data, regardless of their ability to view the visual content.
This section provides instructions on how to identify, review, and fix the issue.
The Acquia Web Governance platform highlights non-streaming video elements in the code.
Assess the video elements to determine if there is an accessible alternative to the visual video content. Ask yourself the following questions:
If you can answer yes to one of the questions above, mark this check as Reviewed.
For further instructions, visit How to review an accessibility issue.
If you could not answer yes to any of the questions above, you must add a text or audio alternative to your video content and then mark this issue as Reviewed.
For further instructions, visit How to review an accessibility issue.
Related accessibility conformance testing rules.
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Web Governance