Audio Description (Prerecorded)
Audio description is provided for all prerecorded video content in synchronized media.
In plain language
Recorded videos need a spoken description of what's happening visually — woven throughout the video, not just in the gaps — so someone who can't see the screen still understands the whole thing.
Why it matters
Blind and low-vision viewers get the dialogue and sound, but not what's happening visually. Without a narrated description, they miss actions, scene changes, and on-screen text that the content depends on.
In practice
Fails this criterion
An instructional video shows someone performing a task silently with background music only — no narration explains what they're doing.
Meets this criterion
The same video has a secondary audio track with descriptions inserted during pauses in the narration, explaining the visual steps being shown.
Test it yourself
Play a recorded video with your eyes closed. Does a narrator describe the important visual actions and information, or only the dialogue? If visual details go unexplained, this criterion is failing.