Audio descriptions style guide

This is an in-progress draft. The content is incomplete and could change substantially.

Assertion developing

[Title, role, or organization] asserts that:

Our organization has a style guide that includes guidance on audio descriptions and a policy and/or processes that the style guide must be followed.

Information that needs to be included publicly:

title, role, or organization making the assertion (if different from the conformance claim)
date of when the style guide was published
date of assertion (if different from the date of the conformance claim)

Recommended internal documentation (Informative):

summary of the needs of users involved
identified issues and details of solutions applied
copy or snapshot of the style guide

Tests

This content needs to be written.

Key Terms

audio description: narration added to the soundtrack to describe important visual details that cannot be understood from the main soundtrack alone

For audiovisual media, audio description provides information about actions, characters, scene changes, on-screen text, and other visual content.
Audio description is also sometimes called “video description”, “described video”, “visual description”, or “descriptive narration”.
In standard audio description, narration is added during existing pauses in dialogue. See also extended audio description.
If all important visual information is already provided in the main audio track, no additional audio description track is necessary.
extended audio description: audio description that is added to audiovisual media by pausing the video to allow for additional time to fit in the audio description

This technique is only used when the sense of the video would be lost without the additional audio description and the pauses between dialogue or narration are too short.
guideline: high-level, plain-language outcome statements used to organize requirements

Guidelines provide high-level, plain-language outcome statements for managers, policymakers, individuals who are new to accessibility, and other individuals who need to understand the concepts but not dive into the technical details. They provide an easy-to-understand way of organizing and presenting the requirements so that non-experts can learn about and understand the concepts.
Each guideline includes a unique, descriptive name along with a high-level plain-language summary. Guidelines address functional needs on specific topics, such as contrast, forms, readability, and more.
Guidelines group related requirements and are technology-independent.
requirement: result of practices that reduce or eliminate barriers that people with disabilities experience