Accessible Design Checklist: Multimedia

This checklist meant to serve as a starting place, rather than a complete list or expert regulations. Accessibility should be considered throughout all parts of the design process, and designing accessible compositions benefits all people, not just those with disabilities. This post is the third and last part of the Accessible Design Checklist series: 

• Overview
• Text and Content
• Multimedia

Multimedia Accessibility

Multimedia includes any design that pairs text, visuals, and/or sound, such as videos, audio recordings, and graphics.

Audio
A text version of the transcript is provided for all audio with accurate transcriptions. Ideally, there are also descriptive audio descriptions for users. When possible, the audio should also be high-quality audio with clear language spoken slowly.

Graphics
Graphics may include images, photographs, logos, and charts and graphs. For charts and graphs, information should not be communicated with color alone to differentiate between categories. Avoid memes and screenshots of text (except in a logo). All graphics should be marked as decorative or have alternative text (alt-text), which has multiple considerations: 

• Decorative images convey no meaning nor give additional information for users. Decorative images should be marked as “decorative,” “artifact,” or assigned a null attribution in the code (i.e., alt=””).
• Alternative text should consider the audience and purpose of the content in its description. This means that only key information is conveyed rather than every extraneous detail. 
• Alternative text should be concise and generally less than 150 characters. If describing visuals such as paintings or charts, then a long description of the visual can be given within the text and the alternative text can be shorter (e.g., “Vincent van Gough’s 1889 “Starry Night.” More information in long description.”)
• Alternative text should not include phrases such as “image of” or “photo of.”

Video
Videos or moving graphics should not flash more than three times per second. Videos should not autoplay, and users should also have the ability to pause the video. In addition, videos should have similar considerations to audio and graphics, including: 

• A transcript is provided for all audio from the video with accurate transcriptions and descriptive audio. The transcript may also contain descriptions of visual information. 
• A video has real-time captions, and when possible, sign language interpretation.

References and Resources for Accessible Design

• Level Access’ Must-Have Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) Checklist 
• Michigan State University’s Create Accessible Content
• University of Washington’s Accessibility Checklist
• Web Accessibility in Mind’s WCAG 2 Checklist
• Web Accessibility Initiative’s Design and Develop Overview

Accessible Design Checklist: Multimedia © 2024 by Bethany Meadows is licensed under CC BY-NC 4.0.