How to make video and audio accessible

Audio description for videos

All pre-recorded videos must describe important visual information for those who need it.

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Why videos need a visual description

Pre-recorded videos must describe important visual information that's needed to understand what a video is communicating. This helps people who:

  • are blind or have trouble seeing the video
  • have difficulty interpreting or focusing on what's happening visually
  • benefit from both visual and auditory information for understanding

Make sure your video has either:

  • integrated video narration with all essential visual information included in the main audio (easiest)
  • a separate audio description (AD) with visual information describe between the gaps in the main audio

Live video streams do not need a visual description.

Integrated audio narration

The easiest way to make visual information in your video accessible is to narrate it in the main audio. Then you don't need to add an audio description.

This works well for presentations and instructional videos. 

To do this, write a script that includes all the information you want the video to contain and use it to narrate the video.

Here's are a few examples of training videos with descriptions integrated into what the trainer is saying:

Audio description

Audio description (AD) is video commentary that's separate from the main audio. It's also sometimes called video description or described video. 

Hear how audio description is used in these examples:

Pre-recorded videos with audio do not need a separate audio description if:

  • essential visual information is already integrated into the main video's audio
  • the visual content supports, but is not needed to understand what the video is communicating, like a person giving a speech or presentation, items in a room or decorative colours or patterns

Pre-recorded videos without audio (video-only) may have either an audio description or a descriptive transcript.

Create a new, alternative video with Audio Description

You may need to create a second video that has audio description added.

If you do this, publish both the original video and the version with audio description and make them easy to find. You must make it clear how they are different to help users pick the video that best suits them.

The RNIB charity includes this information in the video name, and we include it in the following link text:

Adding a separate audio description file

It's sometimes possible to add an audio description as an additional audio track as part of the editing process if:

  • it does not make sense to include what each person is doing in the main narration
  • you've already created your video and you can fit the audio description into natural gaps in the main audio.

Currently, our YouTube channel does not support this method of adding an audio description. You will need to either to narrate your description into the main video audio or create a separate audio described video instead. 

What to describe

You must judge what visual information you need to include in your audio description based on your reasons for including it in the video. 

Visual information you may need to describe could include:

  • text shown in a video, like someone's name, a website or email address or other content
  • who is speaking and where they are
  • informative images like graphs and charts
  • demonstrations that show how to do something
  • events and actions taking place
  • body language or expressions 

Describe visuals only if you feel they are important for understanding what the video is communicating.

You should:

  • be accurate and descriptive, but don’t describe every detail
  • use present tense, active voice and third person

Avoid personal interpretations or opinions about what's going on in your description. 

Related resources

Guidance on audio description

Web Content Accessibility Guidelines