G68Sufficient technique WCAG 1.1.1 Level A Partly scanner-detectable

Describe the purpose of live-only streams

A live traffic camera or a live audio feed cannot carry a transcript, because the content does not exist until it happens. G68 asks for the next best thing, which is a short text alternative saying what the stream is. W3C counts it as sufficient for the non-text-content rule at Level A, using a more specific technique, so the words still need a markup technique to carry them into the page. The point here is identification rather than replacement. Somebody who cannot access the stream should still know what it is, so an unexplained region does not leave them guessing and so they can connect it to a full alternative if one exists elsewhere. Name the thing, the place and what it shows. Live video of the East Coast Highway, south of the interchange, showing current traffic.

How we find it in an audit

Live embeds come out of the page first. Camera feeds, radio streams, board meetings, event broadcasts. Then a reviewer reads whatever name the embed carries in the accessibility tree, which is usually a file name or the word player. The test is whether a person who cannot see or hear the stream would know what it is from that name alone, and the answer is usually no. Where a full alternative exists somewhere else, we check the short name makes the connection findable.

How affected users experience it

An unexplained embed is a hole in the page. A screen-reader user hears the word frame, or a URL, and has to decide whether they have just missed something worth chasing. Named properly, that same embed becomes a decision they can actually make. Someone hearing live traffic camera knows the content is visual and live, knows a transcript was never possible, and moves on without wondering what they lost. Small change, real weight lifted.

Passes vs. fails

Passes: alt text names the product. Fails: the file name is all there is.

Passes

Live view of Portsmouth Harbor, updated continuously, is both the stream's accessible name and its visible heading.

Fails

An embedded harbor webcam is titled player_embed, so what it shows is unknowable without sight.

How this gets tested

The W3C publishes test rules that define what a checker looks for here.

Element marked as decorative is not exposedA tool can check this
Image accessible name is descriptiveA tool finds candidates, you decide
Image button has non-empty accessible nameA tool can check this
Image has non-empty accessible nameA tool can check this
Link has non-empty accessible nameA tool can check this
Object element rendering non-text content has non-empty accessible nameA tool can check this
SVG element with explicit role has non-empty accessible nameA tool can check this
Image not in the accessibility tree is decorativeA tool can check this

Other ways to satisfy this rule

39 guides on this site are filed under 1.1.1 Non-text Content. W3C lists this one as sufficient for that rule when it is implemented through a more specific technique, so the condition is part of the test rather than a footnote to it.

This guide is our interpretation of W3C technique G68: Providing a short text alternative that describes the purpose of live audio-only and live video-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.