ACT Rule c3232f · composite · proposed
Video element visual-only content has accessible alternative
Silent video, a screen recording or an animated diagram, needs the picture turned into something else. This composite rule combines three ways of doing that. A transcript, an audio track, or the video standing as an alternative to text already on the page. Any one of them holding is enough.
A tool can find the places this applies and then hand you the decision. The rule is proposed, so it has not yet been implemented in full by a tool and reviewed by a W3C working group, and the wording can still change.
What passing this rule proves
When this rule fails, 1.2.1 Audio-only and Video-only (Prerecorded) is not satisfied, and that half is certain. When it passes, W3C's own outcome mapping says the criterion still needs further testing. So a green result here is evidence that one specific thing is not broken, and it is the answer W3C gives on 59 of its 87 live rules.
None of the three inputs grades the quality of what it found, which is where the green result stops. Somebody has to read the transcript, or listen to the audio track, and confirm that a person who never sees the video gets what it was showing them.
The criteria this rule is a test for
These are the criteria the rule names as its own conformance requirement. Each one is a far bigger question than this rule asks, and our page for it sets out what the whole criterion covers.
The rules this one combines
A composite rule runs no test of its own. It takes the outcomes of the atomic rules below and turns them into one answer, which is how W3C handles a criterion that can be met in more than one way. Not one of them maps to this criterion on its own.
- Video element visual-only content is media alternative for text A tool finds candidates, you decide
- Video element visual-only content has transcript A tool finds candidates, you decide
- Video element visual-only content has audio track alternative A tool finds candidates, you decide
The normative rule text lives at W3C
What the rule applies to, and exactly what it expects, is published by W3C and can change. We link to it rather than restate it, so nothing here can quietly fall out of date against the source. Read rule c3232f at W3C.
Fixes that satisfy it
If this rule fails on your site, these are the techniques that put it right.
Other rules W3C files under the same criteria
Each of these asks a different question about the same part of the standard. Passing all of them is still not the same as satisfying the criterion.
- Audio element content has text alternative A tool finds candidates, you decide
All 87 ACT rules are grouped by the criteria they test, and 24 of them decide nothing about WCAG on their own. Run a free scan to see which of these your own pages trip.