Media Alternative (Prerecorded)
A media alternative is a text document carrying everything the video says and everything it shows, in the order it happens. It reads more like a book than a caption file. Two kinds of video are in scope, not one. Video with sound, and silent video with no soundtrack at all. Where the video has interactive parts, the text has to give the reader a way to reach the same outcomes.
Why it matters
This is the one media deliverable that reaches deafblind readers, who meet a video through a refreshable braille display and get nothing from captions or from audio description. It also serves anybody who would rather read, search or skim the content than sit through the run time. And it costs less than it sounds, because the raw material is already sitting in the caption file and the description script you produced for Level AA.
Who this rule protects
Deafblind readers on a braille display depend on this most. So does anybody who needs the content as text rather than as time-based media.
How to check it yourself
- Find the text alternative for each prerecorded video, and check silent video too, because it counts.
- Check that it describes what is on screen, not only what is said.
- Read it on its own and ask whether you could follow the content without watching.
- Check that it is in the same language as the video.
- Where the video has interactive parts, check that the text gives a way to reach the same outcomes.
Failures we see most often
- A dialogue-only transcript leaves out everything the picture carried on its own.
- An automatic caption dump ships with no speaker labels and no punctuation.
- Silent video gets skipped entirely, on the assumption that no sound means no transcript.
- A video used as the alternative to text on a page is never labelled as such, which is the one failure W3C documents here.
Who this one is for
Read from this rule's own note above, so the grouping and the note cannot disagree.
- Blind and screen reader userspeople who cannot see the screen
How this one is tested
We list 1 ACT rule against 1.2.8. Each one defines exactly what a checker looks at, which is how automated tools decide what to flag. Each one also checks a slice, so passing every rule here is not the same as meeting the criterion, and a rule can be proposed rather than approved or need a person to finish it. The note beside each says which.
- Audio and visuals of video element have transcriptA tool finds candidates, you decide
How to fix it
- Start from the caption file. Most caption editors export plain text, and the visual description you wrote for Level AA slots in around it.
- Name each speaker, and mark meaningful non-speech sound like applause or a phone ringing.
- Put it under the video, or link to it clearly from right beside the player.
- Where it sits inline on a long page, close it with the words 'End of document' so a screen reader user knows when to stop reading.
Step-by-step fix guides (5)
Passes vs. fails
Passes
A structured text version names each speaker, describes the slides, and uses headings that match the agenda.
Fails
A 40-minute webinar ships with an auto-caption VTT file and nothing else.
In audits and lawsuits
This is Level AAA and the AAA media criterion most worth adopting anyway. There is also a real chance you have met it already without knowing. W3C spells out the overlap. If you satisfied 1.2.3 at Level A by publishing a full text alternative rather than an audio description, and then satisfied 1.2.5, this asks nothing new of you. One more thing to know before rebuilding anything. The text does not have to sit on the same page. Linking to it at another address is a documented route, though putting it right under the video is what W3C prefers.