Narrate visual content within the soundtrack itself
The cheapest audio description is the one you never have to add, and G226 is that approach. Write the narration so it already carries what the picture shows, saying 'choose the green Go button' instead of 'click here'. W3C scopes it to instructional, marketing and similar video where the narration is meant to be informational, and accepts revising an existing script or adding new narration into the pauses. Status carries a condition. W3C lists G226 as sufficient for 1.2.3 at Level A and 1.2.5 at Level AA, in both cases only when it is used together with the technique that provides a described version, so it is a partner rather than a complete answer on its own. W3C publishes six scripting rules that make this practical. Describe pertinent on-screen text. Avoid saying only 'this' or 'here'. Describe elements by how they look as well as by their label. Fully describe sequences of action, including anything that moves. When a page or dialog appears, say its title and describe it. And when you use a mouse to hover, select, scroll or open, say what you are doing.
How we find it in an audit
Our reviewers listen to each video with the screen off and write down every moment the words stop being enough. Deictic language is the tell, so we count the number of times 'this', 'here' and 'that one' appear. Then we check whether the gaps are filled by the narration itself or whether a described version has to carry them.
How affected users experience it
A tutorial narrated as 'now click this, then drag it over here' teaches a blind listener nothing at all. They hear a confident voice and end the video knowing they missed the whole lesson. Scripting the same steps with names and positions costs nothing at production time and serves everybody, including the sighted viewer listening while doing something else.
Passes vs. fails
Passes
The same tutorial scripted to carry its visuals, saying 'Click the blue Export button in the top-right corner, then choose CSV from the menu that opens.'
Fails
A tutorial narrated as 'now click this, then drag it over here, and you are done', which is meaningless without the picture.
How this gets tested
The W3C publishes test rules that define what a checker looks for here.
- Video element visual content has accessible alternativeA tool finds candidates, you decide
- Video element visual content has strict accessible alternativeA tool finds candidates, you decide
Other ways to satisfy this rule
13 guides on this site are filed under 1.2.3 Audio Description or Media Alternative (Prerecorded). W3C lists this one as sufficient for that rule only alongside G173, so the pair is what passes and neither half does on its own.
- G8sufficientProvide a version with extended audio descriptions
- G58sufficientPut the media alternative link beside the media
- G69sufficientProvide a full transcript of the media
- G78sufficientOffer a selectable audio description track
- G173sufficientOffer a described version of every video
- G203sufficientDescribe talking-head video with static text
This guide is our interpretation of W3C technique G226: Providing audio descriptions by incorporating narration in the soundtrack. 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.