How to make video and audio accessible

Transcripts for video

A separate transcript can help people who need it access video content in a different way, but is not required in most cases. 

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What a video transcript is

A video transcript is a written version of important audio and visual information in a video. Its main purpose is to give the same important information from the video in text form.

This helps people who: 

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

Transcripts can also be used with AI tools to summarise what the video content is showing, extract key points or themes and translate it into another language.

Transcripts are usually linked alongside your video content separately, as text on a web page or as an accessible document file. They do not rely on the user interacting with the video player to access it.

There are two types of video transcripts:

  • Basic transcripts include important spoken and non-spoken audio, but may not provide enough information if visual elements are crucial. 
  • Descriptive transcripts include spoken and non-spoken audio, and descriptions of important visual information needed to understand the content.  

If you provide a transcript, a descriptive transcript can help the most people. 

The Royal National Institute of Blind People has examples of basic transcripts on their screen reader videos page (RNIB).

Here is an example of a video and its descriptive transcript from the Information Commissioners Office (ICO): 

When you need a video transcript

Pre-recorded video with:

  • no audio (video-only) must have either an audio description or a descriptive transcript 
  • audio does not require a transcript

A pre-recorded video with audio cannot have a descriptive transcript instead of an audio description, but you can provide both if you'd like. 

In either case, you may be required to provide a video transcript if somebody requests it, like a person who is both deaf and blind.

Live video does not require a transcript, but must have captions.

Creating a transcript

The easiest way to create a transcript is to start with the auto-generated caption text. These are created automatically from the spoken audio in many video players, like YouTube or Microsoft Teams recordings.  

These caption 'transcripts' are not considered complete transcripts for accessibility purposes because they:

  • can be inaccurate, like with heavy accents, unclear pronunciation or abbreviations
  • do not contain visual only information that's needed, like slides with text or important visuals others get from watching the video
  • are not the same as providing a separate format or medium for your video content
  • require users to interact with the video player

But they can be great starting point. Once you have your caption text, use the following steps to create a complete transcript:

  1. Copy and paste the auto-generated text into Word for editing. 
  2. Remove time stamps - though you may want to include some for longer videos to help people refer to the video.
  3. Make paragraphs, add a title and headings and label the speakers.
  4. Include essential missing audio and visual content in square brackets, like [laughter] or [speaker inspects a pothole].
  5. Publish the plain text transcript as either accessible web page content or an accessible document file.
  6. Place the transcript alongside, or link to it underneath, the video and clearly identify it as the transcript in the link text.

When writing your transcript, you should:

  • write simply and clearly in plain language
  • use complete sentences
  • use accurate and descriptive language, but do not describe every detail  
  • use present tense, active voice and third person
  • avoid personal interpretations or opinions about what's happening 

Related resources

Creating transcripts

Web Content Accessibility Guidelines on transcripts