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Media Accessibility Checklist

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Technical Requirements, Prioritizations, and Dependencies

Alternative Content Technologies

System Requirements

Reference Requirement Brief Description Technology Categorization Required for WCAG conformance level Required for UAAG (2.0) conformance level Must/ Should/ May
  NOTE: the plus symbol in the WCAG and UAAG (2.0) conformance columns indicates that the requirement in this document is more finely defined in either of the referenced documents currently note, but remain in the spirit of the referenced documents. In particular the UAAG Working group have indicated that they will be revisiting some of their requirements based on this Checklist.
Described video
(DV-1) Provide an indication that descriptions are available, and are active/non-active. UX AA
2.4.6
A
UAAG 2.0 3.1.1
must
(DV-2) Render descriptions in a time-synchronized manner, using the media resource as the timebase master. UX AA
1.2.5
A
UAAG 2.0 3.1.2
must
(DV-3) Support multiple description tracks (e.g., discrete tracks containing different levels of detail). SPECCED + A
UAAG 2.0 3.1.3 AA
UAAG 2.0 3.1.4
should
(DV-4) Support recordings of high quality speech as part of a media resource, or as an external file. SPECNEW + N/A must
(DV-5) Allow the author to independently adjust the volumes of the audio description and original soundtracks. UX + N/A should
(DV-6) Allow the user to independently adjust the volumes of the audio description and original soundtracks, with the user's settings overriding the author's. UX AAA (binary only)
1.4.7
A
UAAG 2.0 3.7.2
should
(DV-7) Permit smooth changes in volume rather than stepped changes. The degree and speed of volume change should be under provider control. UX + + should
(DV-8) Allow the author to provide fade and pan controls to be accurately synchronised with the original soundtrack. SPECNEW, UX + N/A should
(DV-9) Allow the author to use a codec which is optimized for voice only, rather than requiring the same codec as the original soundtrack. NO + N/A may
(DV-10) Allow the user to select from among different languages of descriptions, if available, even if they are different from the language of the main soundtrack. UX + A
UAAG 2.0 3.1.3
should
(DV-11) Support the simultaneous playback of both the described and non-described audio tracks so that one may be directed at separate outputs (e.g., a speaker and headphones). UX + + should
(DV-12) Allow the user to relocate the description track within the audio field, with the user setting overriding the author setting. The setting should be re-adjustable as the media plays. UX + + may
(DV-13) Support metadata, such as copyright information, usage rights, language, etc. CUEFMT + N/A should
Text video description
(TVD-1) Support presentation of text video descriptions through a screen reader or braille device UX A (implied)
Guideline 1.1
UAAG 2.0 3.1.3 must (dependency on hardware set-up)
(TVD-1) cont support playback speed control and voice control and synchronization points with the video. UX A
2.2.1
A
UAAG 2.0 3.1.3 AA
UAAG 2.0 4.9.5
must (if/when TVD-1 supported)
(TVD-2) TVDs need to be provided in a format that contains start time, text per description cue (the duration is determined dynamically, though an end time could provide a cut point) UX + N/A must
(TVD-2) cont TVDs need to be provided in a format that contains possibly a speech-synthesis markup to improve quality of the description UX + N/A should
(TVD-2) cont TVDs need to be provided in a format that contains accompanying metadata labeling for speakers, language, etc. UX + N/A must
(TVD-3) Where possible, provide a text track privately to those that need it in a mixed-viewing situation, e.g., through headphones. UX + + should
(TVD-4) Where possible, provide options for authors and users to deal with the overflow case: continue reading, stop reading, and pause the video. UX + A
UAAG 2.0 4.9.6
should
(TVD-5) Support the control over speech-synthesis playback speed, volume and voice, and provide synchronisation points with the video. UX + A
UAAG 2.0 3.8.1-2 on speech syntheses
must


Extended video descriptions
(EVD-1) Support detailed user control as specified in (TVD-4) for extended video descriptions. UX + UAAG 2.0 4.9.6 (first one) must
(EVD-2) Support automatically pausing the video and main audio tracks in order to play a lengthy description. UX AAA
1.2.7
+ (UAAG will consider making an AA requirement for this) should
(EVD-3) Support resuming playback of video and main audio tracks when the description is finished. UX + + (UAAG will consider making an AA requirement for this) must
Clean audio
(CA-1) Support speech as a separate, alternative audio track from other sounds. SPECNEW A (one means)
1.4.7
A
UAAG 2.0 3.1.3
must
(CA-2) Support the synchronization of multi-track audio either within the same file or from separate files - preferably both. SPECCED, UX A (one means)
1.4.7
A
UAAG 2.0 3.7.2
should (when Separate tracks), Must when combined with Primary Track
(CA-3) Support separate volume control of the different audio tracks. UX + A
UAAG 2.0 3.7.2
should
(CA-4) Support pre-emphasis filters, pitch-shifting, and other audio-processing algorithms. UX + + (UAAG UAAG 2.0 3.8.2 and 3.8.3 for synthesized speech) may
Content navigation by content structure
(CN-1) Provide a means to structure media resources so that users can navigate them by semantic content structure, e.g. through adding a track to the video that contains navigation markers (in table-of-content style). This means must allow authors to identify ancillary content structures. Support keeping all media representations synchronised when users navigate. SPECCED (chapters) A
1.3.1
A
UAAG 2.0 4.9.6(2),
AA
UAAG 2.0 4.9.7
must
(CN-2) The navigation track should provide for hierarchical structures with titles for the sections. SPECNEW, CUEFMT A
2.4.10
A
UAAG 2.0 4.9.6(2),
AA
UAAG 2.0 4.9.7
must
(CN-3) Support both global navigation by the larger structural elements of a media work, and also the most localized atomic structures of that work, even though authors may not have marked-up all levels of navigational granularity. UX + + should
(CN-4) Support third-party provided structural navigation markup. SPECCED + A
UAAG 2.0 4.9.6(2),
AA
UAAG 2.0 4.9.7
should
(CN-5) Keep all content representations in sync, so that moving to any particular structural element in media content also moves to the corresponding point in all provided alternate media representations (captions, described video, transcripts, etc) associated with that work. UX implied by CN-1 A
UAAG 2.0 4.9.5
must
(CN-6) Support direct access to any structural element, possibly through URIs. SPECNEW + + should
(CN-7) Support pausing primary content traversal to provide access to such ancillary content in line. UX + + should
(CN-8) Support skipping of ancillary content in order to not interrupt content flow. UX + + may
(CN-9) Support access to each ancillary content item, including with "next" and "previous" controls, apart from accessing the primary content of the title. UX + + must (if)
(CN-10) Support that in bilingual texts both the original and translated texts can appear on screen, with both the original and translated text highlighted, line by line, in sync with the audio narration. UX + N/A A
UAAG 2.0 3.1.3, AAA
UAAG 2.0 4.9.10 covers scale and position of alternative content
Captioning
(CC-1) render time-synchronized cues along the media timebase UX A
1.2.2
A
UAAG 2.0 3.1.3
must
(CC-2) allow erasures, i.e. times when no text cues are active CUEFMT + (implied by CC-1) + must
(CC-3) allow gap-less cues CUEFMT, UX + (implied by CC-1) N/A must
(CC-4) specify a character encoding CUEFMT + N/A should (default UTF8?)
(CC-5) positioning on all parts of the screen, inside and outside the video viewport SPECNEW, CUEFMT + AAA
UAAG 2.0 4.9.10
must
(CC-6) display of multiple text cues at the same time UX + A
UAAG 2.0 3.1.3, AAA
UAAG 2.0 4.9.10
should
(CC-7) display of multiple text cues also in ltr or rtl languages UX + + must
(CC-8) allow explicit line breaks CUEFMT + N/A should
(CC-9) allow a range of font faces and sizes CUEFMT AAA
1.4.8
UAAG 2.0 4.9.11 (contrast and brightness), A
UAAG 2.0 3.6.1-3 for text appearance
should
(CC-10) allow background colors and background opacity CUEFMT AAA
1.4.8
A
UAAG 2.0 3.6.1-3 for text appearance
should
(CC-11) allow text colors and opacity CUEFMT AAA
1.4.8
A
UAAG 2.0 3.6.1-3 for text appearance
should
(CC-12) allow thicker outline or a drop shadow on text UX AAA
1.4.8
+ should
(CC-13) enable/disable continuation of background color on erasures UX + + must
(CC-14) allow cue text rendering effects, e.g. paint on, pop on, roll up, appear CUEFMT + + should
(CC-15) support bottom 1/12 rendering rule CUEFMT + + should
(CC-16) support mixed language cues CUEFMT, UX + (see i18n) + must
(CC-17) support mixed language cue files CUEFMT, UX + (see i18n) + must
(CC-18) support furigana, ruby and other common typographical conventions CUEFMT + (see i18n) + must
(CC-19) support full range of typographical glyphs, layout and punctuation marks CUEFMT, UX + (see i18n) + must
(CC-20) support semantic markup of mixed language cues CUEFMT AA
3.1.2
+ must
(CC-21) support semantic markup of different speakers CUEFMT, UX + + must
(CC-22) support the same API for in-band and external cue formats SPECCED + + must
(CC-23) synchronized display of cue text and media data UX + A
UAAG 2.0 3.1.3
must
(CC-24) support user activation/deactivation of cue tracks UX + A
UAAG 2.0 3.1.3,
AA
3.1.4
must
(CC-25) support edited and verbatim caption alternatives SPECNEW, UX AAA
3.1.5
A
UAAG 2.0 3.1.3
must
(CC-26) support several cue tracks in different languages SPECCED + A
UAAG 2.0 3.1.3
must
(CC-27) support live captioning SPECCED AA
1.2.4 [1]
A
UAAG 2.0 3.1.3
must
Enhanced captions/subtitles
(ECC-1) support metadata markup of cue segments CUEFMT AAA
UAAG3.1.3 & [2]
+ should
(ECC-2) support hyperlinking on cue segments CUEFMT, UX + + should
(ECC-3) support extended cue times and overlap handling CUEFMT, UX A
[3]
+ should
(ECC-4) support pausing on extended cue times or parallel display CUEFMT, UX + (implied by ECC-3) A
UAAG 2.0 4.9.6
should
(ECC-5) allow users to specify their reading speed to deal with extended cues UX A
[4]
A
UAAG 2.0 4.9.5
should
Sign translation
(SL-1) Support sign-language video either as a track as part of a media resource or as an external file. SPECNEW, SPECCED AAA
1.2.6
A
UAAG 2.0 3.1.3
must
(SL-2) Support the synchronized playback of the sign-language video with the media resource. SPECNEW, SPECCED (implied by SL-1) A
UAAG 2.0 3.1.3
must
(SL-3) Support the display of sign-language video either as picture-in-picture or alpha-blended overlay, as parallel video, or as the main video with the original video as picture-in-picture or alpha-blended overlay. Parallel video here means two discrete videos playing in sync with each other. It is preferable to have one discrete <video> element contain all pieces for sync purposes rather than specifying multiple <video> elements intended to work in sync. UX + + must
(SL-4) Support multiple sign-language tracks in several sign languages. SPECCED + A
UAAG 2.0 3.1.3
must
(SL-5) Support the interactive activation/deactivation of a sign-language track by the user. UX + A
UAAG 3.1.2, A
UAAG 2.0 3.1.3
must
Transcripts
(T-1) Support the provisioning of a full text transcript for the media asset in a separate but linked resource, where the linkage is programatically accessible to AT. SPECCED A
1.2.1
N/A should
(T-2) Support the provisioning of both scrolling and static display of a full text transcript with the media resource, e.g. in a area next to the video or underneath the video, which is also AT accessible. UX + + should
(T-3) Allow the user to customize the visual rendering of the full text transcript, e.g., font, font size, foreground and background color, line, letter, and word spacing. UX + + should
Access to interactive controls / menus
(IC-1) Support operation of all functionality via the keyboard on systems where a keyboard is (or can be) present, and where a unique focus object is employed. This does not forbid and should not discourage providing mouse input or other input methods in addition to keyboard operation. UX (NOTE: This means that all interaction possibilities with media elements need to be keyboard accessible; e.g., through being able to tab onto the play, pause, mute buttons, and to move the playback position from the keyboard.) A
2.1.1
A
UAAG 2.0 4.1.1
must
(IC-2) Support a rich set of native controls for media operation, including but not limited to play, pause, stop, jump to beginning, jump to end, scale player size (up to full screen), adjust volume, mute, captions on/off, descriptions on/off, selection of audio language, selection of caption language, selection of audio description language, location of captions, size of captions, video contrast/brightness, playback rate, content navigation on same level (next/prev) and between levels (up/down) etc. This is also a particularly important requirement on mobile devices or devices without a keyboard. UX (NOTE: This means that the @controls content attribute needs to provide an extended set of control functionality including functionality for accessibility users.) + + must
(IC-3) All functionality available to native controls must also be available to scripted controls. The author would be able to choose any/all of the controls, skin them and position them. NO (NOTE: This means that new IDL attributes need to be added to the media elements for the extra controls that are accessibility related.) + + should
(IC-4) It must always be possible to enable native controls regardless of the author preference to guarantee that such functionality is available and essentially override author settings through user control. This is also a particularly important requirement on mobile devices or devices without a keyboard. UX (NOTE: This could be enabled through a context menu, which is keyboard accessible and its keyboard access cannot be turned off.) + + must
(IC-5) The scripted and native controls must go through the same platform-level accessibility framework (where it exists), so that a user presented with the scripted version is not shut out from some expected behaviour. NO (NOTE: This is below the level of HTML and means that the accessibility platform needs to be extended to allow access to these controls. ) + + must


(IC-6) Autoplay on media elements is a particularly difficult issue to manage for vision-impaired users. Pointing devices allow other users access to an auto-playing element on a page with a single interaction. Therefore, autoplay state needs to be exposed to the platform-level accessibility framework. The vision-impaired user must be able to stop autoplay either generally on all media elements through a setting, or for particular pages through a single keyboard user interaction. NO (NOTE: This could be enabled through encouraging publishers to use @autoplay, encouraging UAs to implement accessibility settings that allow turning off all autoplay, and encouraging AT to implement a shortcut key to stop all autoplay on a web page. ) + + must
Granularity level control for structural navigation
(CNS-1) All identified structures, including ancillary content as defined in "Content Navigation" above, must be accessible with the use of "next" and "previous," as refined by the granularity control. UX + must
(CNS-2) Users must be able to discover, skip, play-in-line, or directly access ancillary content structures. UX + must
(CNS-3) Users need to be able to access the granularity control using any input mode, e.g. keyboard, speech, pointer, etc. UX + must
(CNS-4) Producers and authors may optionally provide additional access options to identified structures, such as direct access to any node in a table of contents. SPECCED + should
Time-scale modification
(TSM-1) The user can adjust the playback rate of the time-based media tracks to between 50% and 250% of real time. UX + should
(TSM-2) Speech whose playback rate has been adjusted by the user maintains pitch in order to limit degradation of the speech quality. UX + should
(TSM-3) All provided alternative media tracks remain synchronized across this required range of playback rates. UX + must
(TSM-4) The user agent provides a function that resets the playback rate to normal (100%). UX + must
(TSM-5) The user can stop, pause, and resume rendered audio and animation content (including video and animated images) that last three or more seconds at their default playback rate. UX A
UAAG 2.0 4.9.6
must
Production practice and resulting requirements
(PP-1) Support existing production practice for alternative content resources, in particular allow for the association of separate alternative content resources to media resources. Browsers cannot support all forms of time-stamp formats out there, just as they cannot support all forms of image formats (etc.). This necessitates a clear and unambiguous declared format, so that existing authoring tools can be configured to export finished files in the required format. NO + must
(PP-2) Support the association of authoring and rights metadata with alternative content resources, including copyright and usage information. CUEFMT + must
(PP-3) Support the simple replacement of alternative content resources even after publishing. This is again dependent on authoring practice - if the content creator delivers a final media file that contains related accessibility content inside the media wrapper (for example an MP4 file), then it will require an appropriate third-party authoring tool to make changes to that file - it cannot be demanded of the browser to do so. NO + must
(PP-4) Typically, alternative content resources are created by different entities to the ones that create the media content. They may even be in different countries and not be allowed to re-publish the other one's content. It is important to be able to host these resources separately, associate them together through the Web page author, and eventually play them back synchronously to the user. SPECCED + must
Discovery and activation/deactivation of available alternative content by the user
(DAC-1) (part a) (a)The user has the ability to have indicators rendered along with rendered elements that have alternative content (e.g., visual icons rendered in proximity of content which has short text alternatives, long descriptions, or captions). UX A
UAAG 2.0 3.1.1
must
(DAC-1) (part b) (b) In cases where the alternative content has different dimensions than the original content, the user has the option to specify how the layout/reflow of the document should be handled. UX A
UAAG 2.0 3.1.1
should
(DAC-2) The user has a global option to specify which types of alternative content by default and, in cases where the alternative content has different dimensions than the original content, how the layout/reflow of the document should be handled. (UAAG 2.0 3.1.2). SPECNEW (Note: Media queries have been proposed as a way of meeting this need, along with the use of CSS for layout.) + must
(DAC-3) The user can browse the alternatives and switch between them. UX + must
(DAC-4) Synchronized alternatives for time-based media (e.g., captions, descriptions, sign language) can be rendered at the same time as their associated audio tracks and visual tracks. SPECCED A
UAAG 2.0 3.1.3
must
(DAC-5) Non-synchronized alternatives (e.g., short text alternatives, long descriptions) can be rendered as replacements for the original rendered content. SPECCED A
UAAG 2.0 3.1.3
must
(DAC-6) Provide the user with the global option to configure a cascade of types of alternatives to render by default, in case a preferred alternative content type is unavailable. UX AA
UAAG 2.0 3.1.4
should
(DAC-7) During time-based media playback, the user can determine which tracks are available and select or deselect tracks. These selections may override global default settings for captions, descriptions, etc. UX UAAG 2.0 4.9.8 should
(DAC-8) Provide the user with the option to load time-based media content such that the first frame is displayed (if video), but the content is not played until explicit user request. UX A
UAAG 2.0 4.9.2
must
(DAC-9) Provide the user with the option to record alternative content along with the primary content on devices where recording is available. UX (Note: This feature can be user configurable to allow maximum flexibility in trading off the anticipated future need for the description against the amount of extra data storage required. A flexible solution giving maximum control to the user would be to provide a global setting with the following options:
  • Always record the alternative content (the best default option, since a resource recorded by one user may later be accessed by another different user who may have different and unanticipated requirements);
  • Record the alternative content only if it is active at the time of recording;
  • Ask at recording time whether to record the alternative content;
  • Never record the alternative content.)
should
Requirements on making properties available to the accessibility interface
(API-1) The existence of alternative-content tracks for a media resource must be exposed to the user agent. SPECCED + must
(API-2) Since authors will need access to the alternative content tracks, the structure needs to be exposed to authors as well, which requires a dynamic interface. SPECCED + must
(API-3) Accessibility APIs need to gain access to alternative content tracks no matter whether those content tracks come from within a resource or are combined through markup on the page. SPECCED + must
Requirements on the use of the viewport
(VP-1) It must be possible to deal with three different cases for the relation between the viewport size, the position of media and of alternative content:
  1. the alternative content's extent is specified in relation to the media viewport (e.g., picture-in-picture video, lower-third captions)
  2. the alternative content has its own independent extent, but is positioned in relation to the media viewport (e.g., captions above the audio, sign-language video above the audio, navigation points below the controls)
  3. the alternative content has its own independent extent and doesn't need to be rendered in any relation to the media viewport (e.g., text transcripts)

If alternative content has a different height or width than the media content, then the user agent will reflow the (HTML) viewport.

UX (NOTE: This may create a need to provide an author hint to the Web page when embedding alternate content in order to instruct the Web page how to render the content: to scale with the media resource, scale independently, or provide a position hint in relation to the media. On small devices where the video takes up the full viewport, only limited rendering choices may be possible, such that the UA may need to override author preferences.) AA
UAAG 2.0 3.1.4
must
(VP-2) The user can change the following characteristics of visually rendered text content, overriding those specified by the author or user-agent defaults. Note: this should include captions and any text rendered in relation to media elements, so as to be able to magnify and simplify rendered text):
  1. text scale (i.e., the general size of text) ,
  2. font family, and
  3. text color (i.e., foreground and background).
UX (NOTE: This should be achievable through UA configuration or even through something like a greasemonkey script or user CSS which can override styles dynamically in the browser.) A
UAAG 2.0 3.6.1
must
(VP-3) Provide the user with the ability to adjust the size of the time-based media up to the full height or width of the containing viewport, with the ability to preserve aspect ratio and to adjust the size of the playback viewport to avoid cropping, within the scaling limitations imposed by the media itself. UX (NOTE: This can be achieved by simply zooming into the Web page, which will automatically rescale the layout and reflow the content.) AA
UAAG 2.0 4.9.9
should
(VP-4) Provide the user with the ability to control the contrast and brightness of the content within the playback viewport. UX (NOTE: This is a user-agent device requirement and should already be addressed in the UAAG. In live content, it may even be possible to adjust camera settings to achieve this requirement. It is also a "SHOULD" level requirement, since it does not account for limitations of various devices.) UAAG 2.0 4.9.11 should
(VP-5) Captions and subtitles traditionally occupy the lower third of the video, where also controls are also usually rendered. The user agent must avoiding overlapping of overlay content and controls on media resources. This must also happen if, for example, the controls are only visible on demand. UX (NOTE: If there are several types of overlapping overlays, the controls should stay on the bottom edge of the viewport and the others should be moved above this area, all stacked above each other. ) + must
Requirements on secondary screens and other devices
(SD-1) Support a platform-accessibility architecture relevant to the operating environment. UX (user agent issue) A
UAAG 2.0 4.1.1
must
(SD-2) Ensure accessibility of all user-interface components including the user interface, rendered content, and alternative content; make available the name, role, state, value, and description via a platform-accessibility architecture. UX A
UAAG 2.0 4.1.2
must
(SD-3) If a feature is not supported by the accessibility architecture(s), provide an equivalent feature that does support the accessibility architecture(s). Document the equivalent feature in the conformance claim. UX A
UAAG 2.0 4.1.3
must
(SD-4) If the user agent implements one or more DOMs, they must be made programmatically available to assistive technologies. This assumes the video element will write to the DOM. UX A
UAAG 2.0 4.1.4
must
(SD-5) If the user can modify the state or value of a piece of content through the user interface (e.g., by checking a box or editing a text area), the same degree of write access is available programmatically. UX, SPECCED A
UAAG 2.0 4.1.5
must
(SD-6) If any of the following properties are supported by the accessibility-platform architecture, make the properties available to the accessibility-platform architecture:
  1. the bounding dimensions and coordinates of rendered graphical objects;
  2. font family;
  3. font size;
  4. text foreground color;
  5. text background color;
  6. change state/value notifications.
UX A
UAAG 2.0 4.1.6
must
(SD-7) Ensure that programmatic exchanges between APIs proceed at a rate such that users do not perceive a delay. UX A
UAAG 2.0 4.1.7
must

Glossary

We sorted the requirements into the following categories:

  • UX: User agent user experience requirement
  • SPECNEW: New requirements for the HTML5 specification
  • SPECCED: Already in the HTML5 specification
  • CUEFMT: Text track format detail - something that should be specced in the track format, not the HTML spec
  • NO: Not an issue we will address in the W3C


Mappings of technologies against requirements

We have started an investigation of technologies against the guidelines outlined below.

Interested parties can start their own by building on this template