Proposed Test Rule: video element visual-only content has transcript
Description
Non-streaming video
elements without audio must have all visual information available in a transcript.
Applicability
This rule applies to any non-streaming video
element that is visible where the video does not contain audio.
Expectation
The visual information of each test target is available in a text transcript that is available either on the page or through a link. The text transcript needs to be visible and included in the accessibility tree.
Assumptions
- A mechanism is available to start the video and that the video element is not simply used to display the poster.
- The language of each test target can be correctly determined (either programmatically or by analyzing the content), and sufficiently understood.
Accessibility Support
There are no major accessibility support issues known for this rule.
Background
- A “text transcript” in the context of this rule is defined in WCAG 2 as an alternative for time based media.
- Understanding Success Criterion 1.2.1: Audio-only and Video-only (Prerecorded)
- G159: Providing an alternative for time-based media for video-only content
Test Cases
Passed
Passed Example 1
This video
element, which has no audio, has a text transcript available on the same page.
<html lang="en">
<video controls>
<source src="/test-assets/rabbit-video/silent.mp4" type="video/mp4"></source>
<source src="/test-assets/rabbit-video/silent.webm" type="video/webm"></source>
</video>
<p>The above video shows a giant fat rabbit climbing out of a hole in the ground.
He stretches, yawns, and then starts walking.
Then he stops to scratch his bottom.</p>
</html>
Passed Example 2
This video
element, which has no audio, has a transcript which conveys information included in the video-only content. The transcript is available through a link on the same page.
<html lang="en">
<video controls>
<source src="/test-assets/rabbit-video/silent.mp4" type="video/mp4"></source>
<source src="/test-assets/rabbit-video/silent.webm" type="video/webm"></source>
</video>
<a href="/test-assets/rabbit-video/transcript.html">Transcript</a>
</html>
Failed
Failed Example 1
This video
element, which has no audio, has an incorrect text transcript available on the same page.
<html lang="en">
<video controls>
<source src="/test-assets/rabbit-video/silent.mp4" type="video/mp4"></source>
<source src="/test-assets/rabbit-video/silent.webm" type="video/webm"></source>
</video>
<p>The above video shows a giant fat dog climbing out of a hole in the ground.
He stretches, yawns, and then starts walking.
Then he stops to scratch his bottom.</p>
</html>
Failed Example 2
This video
element, which has no audio, has an incorrect text transcript available through a link on the same page.
<html lang="en">
<video controls>
<source src="/test-assets/rabbit-video/silent.mp4" type="video/mp4"></source>
<source src="/test-assets/rabbit-video/silent.webm" type="video/webm"></source>
</video>
<a href="/test-assets/rabbit-video/incorrect-transcript.html">Transcript</a>
</html>
Failed Example 3
This video
element, which has no audio, has a text transcript available on the same page, but the transcript is not visible.
<html lang="en">
<video controls>
<source src="/test-assets/rabbit-video/silent.mp4" type="video/mp4"></source>
<source src="/test-assets/rabbit-video/silent.webm" type="video/webm"></source>
</video>
<p style="text-indent: -9999px;">The above video shows a giant fat rabbit climbing out of a hole in the ground.
He stretches, yawns, and then starts walking.
Then he stops to scratch his bottom.</p>
</html>
Failed Example 4
This video
element, which has no audio, has a text transcript available on the same page, but the transcript is not included in the accessibility tree.
<html lang="en">
<video controls>
<source src="/test-assets/rabbit-video/silent.mp4" type="video/mp4"></source>
<source src="/test-assets/rabbit-video/silent.webm" type="video/webm"></source>
</video>
<p aria-hidden="true">The above video shows a giant fat rabbit climbing out of a hole in the ground.
He stretches, yawns, and then starts walking.
Then he stops to scratch his bottom.</p>
</html>
Inapplicable
Inapplicable Example 1
This video
element has audio.
<html lang="en">
<video controls>
<source src="/test-assets/rabbit-video/video.mp4" type="video/mp4"></source>
<source src="/test-assets/rabbit-video/video.webm" type="video/webm"></source>
</video>
<a href="/test-assets/rabbit-video/transcript.html">Transcript</a>
</html>
Inapplicable Example 2
This video
element is not visible.
<html lang="en">
<video controls style="display: none;">
<source src="/test-assets/rabbit-video/silent.mp4" type="video/mp4"></source>
<source src="/test-assets/rabbit-video/silent.webm" type="video/webm"></source>
</video>
<a href="/test-assets/rabbit-video/transcript.html">Transcript</a>
</html>
Glossary
Focusable
Elements that can become the target of keyboard input as described in the HTML specification of focusable and can be focused.
Included in the accessibility tree
Elements included in the accessibility tree of platform specific accessibility APIs. Elements in the accessibility tree are exposed to assistive technologies, allowing users to interact with the elements in a way that meet the requirements of the individual user.
The general rules for when elements are included in the accessibility tree are defined in the core accessibility API mappings. For native markup languages, such as HTML and SVG, additional rules for when elements are included in the accessibility tree can be found in the HTML accessibility API mappings (working draft) and the SVG accessibility API mappings (working draft).
For more details, see [examples of included in the accessibility tree][].
Note: Users of assistive technologies might still be able to interact with elements that are not included in the accessibility tree. An example of this is a focusable element with an aria-hidden
attribute with a value of true
. Such an element could still be interacted using sequential keyboard navigation regardless of the assistive technologies used, even though the element would not be included in the accessibility tree.
[examples of included in the accessibility tree]: https://act-rules.github.io/pages/examples/included-in-the-accessibility-tree/
Non-streaming media element
A non-streaming media element is an HTML Media Element for which the duration
property is not 0.
Outcome
An outcome is a conclusion that comes from evaluating an ACT Rule on a test subject or one of its constituent test target. An outcome can be one of the three following types:
- Inapplicable: No part of the test subject matches the applicability
- Passed: A test target meets all expectations
- Failed: A test target does not meet all expectations
Note: A rule has one passed
or failed
outcome for every test target. When there are no test targets the rule has one inapplicable
outcome. This means that each test subject will have one or more outcomes.
Note: Implementations using the EARL10-Schema can express the outcome with the outcome property. In addition to passed
, failed
and inapplicable
, EARL 1.0 also defined an incomplete
outcome. While this cannot be the outcome of an ACT Rule when applied in its entirety, it often happens that rules are only partially evaluated. For example, when applicability was automated, but the expectations have to be evaluated manually. Such “interim” results can be expressed with the incomplete
outcome.
Visible
Content perceivable through sight.
Content is considered visible if making it fully transparent would result in a difference in the pixels rendered for any part of the document that is currently within the viewport or can be brought into the viewport via scrolling.
For more details, see examples of visible.
Implementations
There are currently no known implementations for this rule. If you would like to contribute an implementation, please read the ACT Implementations page for details.
Changelog
This is the first version of this ACT rule.