Maximum Accessibility: Making Your Web Site More Usable for Everyone

Using Transcripts as Equivalent Alternatives

A caption is basically a transcript that has been synchronized to the video presentation. Transcripts provide a text version of the audio portion—the dialog and other sounds—of the video presentation. To provide the greatest user independence, transcripts of the audio track and any audio descriptions should be provided in addition to the captioned video files. A transcript is usually but not necessarily provided as a link to a separate page and will be accessed when audio and video are turned off or not supported. A transcript can be linked from the main page by means of a longdesc attribute or a text link. Remember that the text link has to be meaningful both in and out of context. For example, “Assistive ...