Level A · WCAG 2.0
1.2.1 Audio-only and Video-only (Prerecorded)
Pre-recorded audio-only content needs a transcript. Pre-recorded video with no sound needs a transcript or an audio description.
Partly automated Some failures are detectable, others need judgement.
How it fails in practice
A podcast episode embedded with a play button and nothing else. A silent “how it works” animation that carries the whole explanation and has no text version.
How to fix it
Publish the transcript as text on the page, not as a downloadable file only. For silent video, either describe it in text nearby or record a short audio description.
At a glance
- Level
- Level A — the minimum. Failing one of these usually makes something impossible rather than merely hard.
- Principle
- Perceivable
- Guideline
- 1.2 Time-based Media
- Added in
- WCAG 2.0
- EN 301 549
- 9.1.2.1
- Automated check
- Partly automated
Partly automated
How far an automated check gets
A tool finds some failures here and cannot see the rest. A clean automated result means the checks that exist found nothing — not that the criterion is met. This is the gap that makes a green scan look like an accessible site, and it is where the keyboard agent, the agents still in development and a human reviewer do the remaining work.
Related criteria
Other criteria under the same guideline.
Further reading
-
Transcript
A full text version of audio or video content; the usual alternative for audio-only content (WCAG 1.2.1).
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