Create accessible materials – audio and video content
Use audio and video where it supports or is the best way to deliver information. Increase accessibility through clear and easy-to-follow content that has synchronised captions, transcripts, and signposting.
Audio and/or video can help make information more digestible, comprehensible, engaging, and approachable. You should:
- Make sure the audio is understandable. Audio information should be at an appropriate ‘readability’ or grade level for your audience.
- Make audio content easy to follow. If it’s long, break it up into chunks.
- Include closed captions and transcripts.
- Make sure the audio matches the captions (check they are synchronised).
- Offer transcripts so that people with disability can freely engage in the best way for them.
- Include audio description of video content that is only available through visual cues.
- Provide Auslan translations to support your materials.
Relevant pages
Requirements and standards for video and audio (Australian Government Style Manual)
Description of visual information (Web Accessibility Initiative [WAI] / W3C)
Audio description for videos: digital accessibility (Harvard University)
Quick reference to audio and video requirements under WCAG (Media Access Australia)
Sign language – Auslan (Better Health Channel)
Making audio and video media accessible (W3C)
Guidance on using captions, transcripts and audio descriptions (WebAIM)
Captioning, audio description and transcription contacts (Centre for Inclusive Design)
Broadcast and social media communication in emergencies (Centre for Inclusive Design)
Audio content
Provide information in an audio format if audio enhances the user experience, or the document would be very long in text. You should:
- Make sure your audio is clear and easy to hear.
- Remove background noise.
- Ensure consistent volume, also known as normalising.
- Consider producing long documents in the DAISY format: these are enhanced audiobooks that can synchronise visual content with the audio file, providing more flexibility for your audience.
Audio information can:
- be more comfortable and engaging for your audience than using software like screen readers, especially for long text
- enhance the experience of people who prefer audio content
- be more convenient or easier to focus on than visual information.
Relevant pages
DAISY technology guides and training (Vision Australia)
Video content
Make sure all video content is clear and easy to understand. To do this, you should:
- Use audio description to explain the visual elements of the video in between dialogue.
- Avoid bright, flashing, or rapidly flickering colour in your video. Flickering colours and fast flashes can cause issues for audience members.
- If bright or flashing lights are unavoidable, include a warning for your audience before playing the video and redirect them to other ways in which they might engage with the content.
- Ensure all text in videos follows good practice.
People who experience barriers remembering/concentrating, hearing, or understanding information may like receiving video information as it can:
- illustrate or explain information more clearly than other media
- be more engaging than other media
- present important information quickly.
Relevant pages
Plan: Create accessible materials – images and diagrams