If a video shows steps without saying them, a blind viewer hears only music. Narrate what the hands do and read out any on-screen text, which WCAG calls audio description, and put the written steps underneath.

Hands, music and no words

A typical demonstration video on a small business website runs a minute or two. Light music plays while a pair of hands opens, sets up, adjusts and uses the product. Nobody speaks.

Now and then a line of text appears on screen for a few seconds: a step number, a measurement, a temperature.

For a sighted viewer it works well enough. For someone who cannot see the screen, it is two minutes of music.

Captions do not fix it. Captions put spoken words on screen, and in this video there are none to put there.

Who misses the steps

The third is the group owners rarely picture. Someone assembling, filling or fitting something while the video plays is looking at the job, not the screen, and narration helps them as much as anyone.

What WCAG asks for

WCAG 2.0, the usual reference standard for accessible websites, expects information shown in a video to reach people who cannot see it.

At level A it accepts either of two things: audio description, or a full text alternative that sets out everything that happens in the video.

At level AA, the usual target for a business website, it asks for audio description of prerecorded video, in success criterion 1.2.5.

Audio description means that what is shown is also spoken. When the main soundtrack already says everything important, nothing extra is needed, which is why narration is the simplest route for a demonstration.

Narration is audio description

Films and television programmes add description as a separate voice slipped into the gaps between dialogue. A demonstration set to music has no dialogue, so there is no need for anything so elaborate.

A voice saying what the hands are doing, recorded over the existing footage with the music lowered beneath it, turns the same video into one that works without the picture.

It should name each action, give every quantity and direction, read aloud any text that appears on screen, and say what a correct result looks like.

Write the steps first

The script is simply the steps, written out in order: what to do, how much, how long, and what to look for before moving on.

Written once, it does three jobs. Read aloud, it is the narration. Timed to the video, it becomes the captions that deaf viewers need. Placed beneath the video, it is the text alternative.

Writing the steps also exposes gaps. A step the video shows in a second and never explains is usually the one viewers get wrong.

A worked example

A fountain pen shop on a neighbourhood shopping street sells pens, bottled ink and paper in the shop and through its website, and posts short videos showing how to fill and care for each type of pen.

Each video shows a pen on a wooden desk and a pair of hands, to soft piano music.

The barrel unscrews, the nib dips into the bottle, a small piston turns, and the words "until ink rises" appear on screen for two seconds.

A customer with low vision emailed to ask how to fill the pen she had just bought. The video gave her music, and the product page said only to watch the video.

The owner wrote out the steps for each of the six videos: which way to turn, how deep to dip, how long to hold, and how to tell the pen is full.

The shop's web developer laid the owner's narration over the existing footage, lowered the music beneath it, added captions from the same script and set the written steps under each video.

The written steps also gave every product page the filling instructions it had been missing.

Read out what appears on screen

Text that appears in a video is part of the picture. A screen reader cannot read it, and many viewers miss it at small sizes or short durations.

Measurements, temperatures, warnings, prices and web addresses all need to be spoken. So do the title at the start and the contact details at the end, which are often the only words in the video at all.

A text version under every video

Below each video, put the steps as ordinary text on the page. It serves people who prefer reading, people who cannot play sound at work, and anyone printing the instructions.

It is also the only part of the video search engines can read, so the page can be found by someone searching for the problem it solves.

For a short clip with no sound worth hearing, a clear written description beside it is a reasonable start while narration is arranged for the videos that matter most.

New videos, narrated from the start

Adding narration later works, but planning it costs less. Script the steps before filming, and pace the shots so each step has time to be described.

Some owners simply talk while they work, which is narration in its plainest form. A quiet room and a decent microphone matter more than a polished voice.

The counter-case

A video where someone already explains every step aloud needs no added description. Nor does a background loop on a home page that carries no information at all.

A business with dozens of old videos need not fix them all at once. Start with the ones customers rely on to use what they bought, and work down.

For every demonstration that shows steps without saying them, narrate what is shown, read out the on-screen text and put the steps in writing beneath it.

This month

  1. List every video on your website.
  2. Play each one with your eyes shut.
  3. Write out the steps each video shows.
  4. Record narration from those steps.
  5. Read all on-screen text aloud in it.
  6. Add captions from the same script.
  7. Put the written steps under each video.

Step two is the test that settles it. Two minutes of music with your eyes shut is exactly what a blind visitor gets, and it makes the case faster than any guideline.

Video made live from a phone, with no chance to script it, is covered in live video from a phone, broadcast to anyone.

Frequently asked questions

Why do captions not help here?

Captions put spoken words on screen. In a demonstration set to music, nothing is spoken, so captions have nothing to show, and a blind viewer still hears only music.

What is audio description?

Speech that conveys what a video shows but does not say. For a demonstration, narration describing each action and reading out on-screen text does the job.

Does WCAG require audio description?

At level AA, the usual target, WCAG 2.0 asks for audio description of prerecorded video. At level A it accepts either description or a full text alternative.

Is narration in the main soundtrack enough?

Yes. When the main soundtrack already says everything important that is shown, no separate description track is needed. That makes narration the simplest route for demonstrations.

What should the narration say?

Each action in order, every quantity and direction, any text that appears on screen, and what a correct result looks like before the next step begins.

Do written steps under the video help?

Yes. They serve people who prefer reading or cannot play sound, they meet level A as a text alternative, and they are the only part search engines can read.

West Coast Media Solutions Inc. provides web design, web development, hosting, digital marketing, and business consulting to organisations across Canada, drawing on more than twenty-five years in the field.

How-to videos with nothing but music?

Send us the links. We will script the narration from the steps and add it, with captions, to your existing footage.

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