Audio Description Guidelines

Relevant to: faculty, staff, and students

This article contains information considered accurate at the time of publishing. Technology updates, changes in University security practices, policies and procedures may effect the information in this article - updates to articles are scheduled on a periodic basis and will address any required changes.

What is Audio Description and Why is it Important?

Audio description is an audio track incorporated into a video for the purpose of describing important actions, scene changes, instructions, or graphics that are otherwise not communicated through the video’s audio. Simply put, audio description describes what’s happening in a video. This is important to include so that individuals who are Blind or have low vision can fully access all of the information in a video. Providing audio description is an example of ensuring effective communication access. Effective communication access is a requirement under the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) and Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act.

Audio Description (AD)

Audio Description is an accessibility feature that provides spoken narration of key visual elements in media such as actions, settings, facial expressions, costumes, and on-screen text, for individuals who are blind or have low vision.

• How it works: The narration is inserted during natural pauses in dialogue or relevant sounds, without altering the video’s timing.
• Purpose: To convey essential visual information that is not communicated through the main audio track.
• Use cases: Common in films, TV shows, and videos where the pace allows for short descriptive inserts.
• Example: During a pause, you might hear: “A woman enters the room, clutching a torn letter.” 

Extended Audio Description (EAD)

Extended Audio Description goes a step further by pausing the video playback to allow for longer and more detailed descriptions when natural pauses are insufficient.

• How it works: The video temporarily freezes while the narrator provides comprehensive descriptions, then resumes playback.
• Purpose: To ensure complex or visually dense content is fully accessible.
• Use cases: Ideal for educational materials, training videos, documentaries, or scenes with intricate visual details.
• Example: The video stops, and you hear: “The camera pans over a cluttered workbench. Tools, some antique and rusted, are scattered among blueprints covered in red ink.”

When should we provide Audio Description?

In addition to providing audio description for videos if it is requested as a reasonable accommodation, we should proactively ensure that all prerecorded video content in synchronized media is audio described. Providing audio description helps the university comply with Title II of the Americans with Disabilities Act, the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG), and our own Electronic Information Technology Accessibility (EITA) policy.

To learn more about audio description as required under WCAG, consider this resource from World Wide Web Consortium (W3C): Understanding SC 1.2.5: Audio Description (Prerecorded) (Level AA).

Highest Priority -- Required

• Videos shared in courses that have scene changes or that show screenshots (such as with an instructional demo of Excel) 
• Marketing videos 
• Videos shared with the internal university community (employees) 
• Videos without audio or featuring only music
• Videos featuring news stories or documentaries, in which scenes change and different activities occur on screen
• Videos with slides that are not described in the narrative

Not Recommended -- unless there is a visual component, such as slides or a demonstration

• Faculty created messages to students (non-content, ie. Welcome Message)
• “Talking head” videos, such as TedTalks, in which a speaker appears on stage and talks to an audience.
• Videos featuring an interview with no background images, such as slides, or scene changes

Key Differences

How to Request Audio Description

You can request audio description for a video by using the Request AD form. It takes approximately 5 days to process these requests.