How to make video and audio accessible

Transcripts for audio-only content

Pre-recorded audio-only content like podcasts, recordings of speeches or interviews must have a text transcript to be accessible.

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Why audio-only content needs a transcript

A text transcript is one of the only ways to make audio-only content accessible.

Audio-only content includes podcasts and recordings of speeches or interviews and are either pre-recorded or live.

The transcript's main purpose is to give the information you hear to the people who cannot hear it. This helps people who:

  • are both deaf and blind and use braille displays to read text
  • find it hard to hear the audio or are deaf
  • find it hard to understand spoken words
  • have attention difficulties, limited time or who find it easier to read, scan or search for information in text form

People can also use transcripts with AI tools to summarise what the audio is saying, extract key points or themes and translate it into another language.

All pre-recorded audio-only content requires a transcript.

Live audio-only content does not require a transcript. But, it's helpful to provide one if you have it. For example, by providing a prepared statement or script if it's followed.

Creating a transcript

Start with an automatically-generated text file of the audio. Be prepared to spend time reviewing and correcting the transcript. 

There is no set design for transcripts, but you must structure it in a way that is easy to read and understand. 

We recommend you: 

  • add a clear title identifying what it is a transcript of
  • make paragraphs and add headings
  • identify the speakers
  • correct errors with auto-transcribing, but do not change, censor or add to the text that is spoken
  • avoid all uppercase letters, except to indicate yelling
  • include meaningful non-spoken audio that's missing in square brackets, like [laughter], [fire alarm beeping], or [intro music]
  • do not include background audio,

Learn what else you can transcribe in your transcript from the W3C

Publishing your transcript online

Once you've created your transcript, make it easy for people to find. Most audio-only transcripts are provided as text on a web page (or HTML). They do not usually rely on the user interacting with the audio player to access it.

You can either:

  • publish a transcript text directly underneath the recording on the same page
  • place a link underneath the recording to a separate web page with the transcript

For example, the NottAlone Podcast has a transcript underneath each episode recording. They also post a transcript link alongside their streaming link on the podcast's main page.

Related resources

More on accessible audio-only content

Web Content Accessibility Guidelines

This guidance may address the following: