Animations and Multimedia

ISSUE:

Information conveyed by the visual portion of an animation or multimedia presentation may be inaccessible to an individual with a visual impairment or using equipment that does not support this type of video output. Embedded animations or multimedia presentations may prevent a screen-reader user from being able to access other information being displayed.

The audio portion of an animation or multimedia presentation may be inaccessible to an individual who is deaf, hard-of-hearing or using a system that does not support audio output. A user working in a noisy environment may find it difficult or impossible to comprehend auditory information. A user working in a quiet environment or in close proximity to others may also find audio output problematic. Application audio may conflict with the synthesized-speech output from a screen-reader.

STANDARD:

• Video presentations shall be accompanied by text and/or audio descriptions of the visual content.



• Audio presentations shall be accompanied by text captioning.



• The equivalent accessible alternatives for an animation or multimedia presentation (i.e., text captioning and/or audio description) shall be synchronized with the presentation.



• An option for disabling animations or multimedia presentations shall be provided.



• The ability to access animations and multimedia presentations shall not be required in order to use an application.