How to test
Media (Audio & Video)
Time-based media has to work without sound and without sight. Test that video has synchronized captions, audio has a transcript, and the player itself is operable by keyboard and screen reader.
What to test
- Prerecorded video with audio has synchronized captions.
- Prerecorded audio (podcasts) has a complete text transcript.
- Video conveying visual information has audio description or a text alternative.
- Captions include speaker changes and meaningful sound effects, not just dialogue.
- Media doesn't autoplay with sound — or can be paused/stopped immediately.
- Player controls (play, mute, volume, scrubber, captions) are keyboard-operable and labelled.
How to test
- 1Watch the video muted and confirm captions convey all spoken and important non-spoken audio.
- 2Listen with the screen off and confirm a transcript exists and is complete.
- 3For instructional video, confirm an audio-description track or equivalent text describes the on-screen action.
- 4Tab through the player and operate every control by keyboard; confirm each has an accessible name.
Common failures
- Auto-generated captions with errors, no punctuation, or no speaker labels.
- Video with missing or out-of-sync captions.
- A podcast with no transcript.
- A custom player with unlabelled icon controls or no keyboard support.
- Autoplaying background media with no pause control.