1.3 Text description of visual track of a multimedia presentation
The New Zealand Web Standards 2.0 were released in March 2009 and replace the previous version, the New Zealand Government Web Standards 1.0 (below). See Meeting the standards for more information.
The Standard
1.3 Until user agents can automatically read aloud the text equivalent of a visual track, provide a text description [that can then be read] of the important information of the visual track of a multimedia presentation.
Guide to this standard
To assist understanding of this requirement, an analogy is a Karaoke machine. If video with the music has someone singing the track, the lyrics presented in written form on the screen are expected to be in sync with the music and the lip movements of the singer(s).
Provide a text equivalent or alternative, and an audio track to accompany a multimedia presentation, which describes important information presented in the visual track.
If possible, attempt to have the text and/or audio track synchronised with the presentation.
This standard covers the W3C WAI checkpoints 1.3 and 1.4 for NZ government agencies.
Rationale for this standard
There is a two-fold purpose for this standard.
- If information is provided primarily in multimedia clips i.e., scenery, charts etc., then the conveyance of the information will be lost to users with visual impairments.
- Having a written description (as opposed to recorded description) enables the text to be indexed and searched, which (at the time of writing) is extremely difficult with information contained within a multimedia clip.
