Provide transcripts for audio-only content
G158 asks for a document that tells the same story as the audio, in the same language, so somebody who cannot hear it gets the same information rather than a summary of it. That means all the important dialogue plus the sounds that carry meaning, since a laugh, a pause, or a phone ringing can be doing as much work as a sentence. If a script exists, start there, and then correct it against what was actually recorded. This is a sufficient technique for 1.2.1 Audio-only and Video-only (Prerecorded) at Level A, one of only three on that rule. It is also the one people most often half-do. A two-line teaser under a player is not a transcript and does not meet anything.
How we find it in an audit
Our reviewers find every audio file on the site and check whether a text version exists on the same page, reachable from it, and labeled clearly enough that a reader knows what it is. Then we read the transcript against the recording. Three faults come up most. Missing speaker names, dropped sections, and machine transcription nobody corrected.
How affected users experience it
Deaf and hard of hearing readers get nothing at all from a bare audio player. A transcript also lets people with cognitive disabilities read at their own pace, gives anyone in a noisy place a way in, and is the version everybody quotes from later. It is the single most reused accommodation on most sites, and it is one of the cheapest.
Passes vs. fails
Passes
Below the player sits the full transcript, every speaker named, all speech included, and meaningful sounds noted, such as a laugh or a phone ringing.
Fails
A 40-minute interview podcast is published as an audio player, a title, and a two-line teaser.
How this gets tested
The W3C publishes test rules that define what a checker looks for here.
- Audio element content has text alternativeA tool finds candidates, you decide
- Video element visual-only content has accessible alternativeA tool finds candidates, you decide
Other ways to satisfy this rule
6 guides on this site are filed under 1.2.1 Audio-only and Video-only (Prerecorded). W3C lists this one as sufficient for that rule on its own. Implement it correctly, in a way your readers' software actually supports, and the rule is met.
This guide is our interpretation of W3C technique G158: Providing an alternative for time-based media for audio-only content. W3C publishes its techniques as guidance rather than as the standard, and says so on every one of them. The success criterion is what conformance is measured against, and a technique is one documented way to meet it.