Audio-only as a media alternative for text

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Description

This rule checks audio is a media alternative for text on the page.

Test Procedure

Applicability

The rule applies to every non-streaming audio element that is:

Note: A play button is an interactive element that when activated, plays the audio.

Expectation 1

The auditory information of each test target is available as text (directly or via text alternatives) that is visible and included in the accessibility tree.

Expectation 2

Each target element is labelled as an audio alternative for text on the page.

Expectation 3

The label (from expectation 2) is visible and included in the accessibility tree

Note: The term label does not refer to the label element.

Assumptions

There are currently no assumptions

Accessibility support

There are no major accessibility support issues known for this rule.

Background

Test cases

Passed

Passed example 1

An audio element that describes some of the text on the same page. The text on the page labels the audio as an alternative.

Code Snippet: 
 <p>A part of a speech by John F. Kennedy: We choose to go to the moon in this decade and do the other things, not because they are easy, but because they are hard, because that goal will serve to organize and measure the best of our energies and skills, because that challenge is one that we are willing to accept, one we are unwilling to postpone, and one which we intend to win, and the others, too.</p>
<p>You can also listen to the audio file below to hear the above part of the speech.</p>
<audio src="../test-assets/moon-audio/moon-speech.mp3" controls></audio>
Example Output: Open in a new tab/ window

Failed

Failed example 1

An audio element that describes some of the text on the same page. The audio contains more information than the text does.

Code Snippet: 
 <p>A part of a speech by John F. Kennedy: We choose to go to the moon in this decade and do the other things, not because they are easy, but because they are hard.</p>
<p>You can also listen to the audio file below to hear the above part of the speech.</p>
<audio src="../test-assets/moon-audio/moon-speech.mp3" controls></audio>
Example Output: Open in a new tab/ window

Failed example 2

An audio element that describes some of the text on the same page. The text is not visible on the page.

Code Snippet: 
 <p style="display: none;">A part of a speech by John F. Kennedy: We choose to go to the moon in this decade and do the other things, not because they are easy, but because they are hard, because that goal will serve to organize and measure the best of our energies and skills, because that challenge is one that we are willing to accept, one we are unwilling to postpone, and one which we intend to win, and the others, too.</p>
<p>You can also listen to the audio file below to hear the above part of the speech.</p>
<audio src="../test-assets/moon-audio/moon-speech.mp3" controls></audio>
Example Output: Open in a new tab/ window

Failed example 3

An audio element that describes some of the text on the same page. The text on the page does not label the audio as an alternative.

Code Snippet: 
 <p>A part of a speech by John F. Kennedy: We choose to go to the moon in this decade and do the other things, not because they are easy, but because they are hard, because that goal will serve to organize and measure the best of our energies and skills, because that challenge is one that we are willing to accept, one we are unwilling to postpone, and one which we intend to win, and the others, too.</p>
<audio src="../test-assets/moon-audio/moon-speech.mp3" controls></audio>
Example Output: Open in a new tab/ window

Failed example 4

An audio element that describes some of the text on the same page. The text on the page labels the audio as an alternative but the label is not visible on the page.

Code Snippet: 
 <p>A part of a speech by John F. Kennedy: We choose to go to the moon in this decade and do the other things, not because they are easy, but because they are hard, because that goal will serve to organize and measure the best of our energies and skills, because that challenge is one that we are willing to accept, one we are unwilling to postpone, and one which we intend to win, and the others, too.</p>
<p style="display: none;">You can also listen to the audio file below to hear the above part of the speech.</p>
<audio src="../test-assets/moon-audio/moon-speech.mp3" controls></audio>
Example Output: Open in a new tab/ window

Inapplicable

Inapplicable example 1

An audio element that describes some of the text on the same page. The text on the page labels the audio as an alternative but the controls are not visible on the page.

Code Snippet: 
 <p>A part of a speech by John F. Kennedy: We choose to go to the moon in this decade and do the other things, not because they are easy, but because they are hard, because that goal will serve to organize and measure the best of our energies and skills, because that challenge is one that we are willing to accept, one we are unwilling to postpone, and one which we intend to win, and the others, too.</p>
<p>You can also listen to the audio file below to hear the above part of the speech.</p>
<audio src="../test-assets/moon-audio/moon-speech.mp3" controls style="display: none;"> </audio>
Example Output: Open in a new tab/ window

Inapplicable example 2

An audio element that describes some of the text on the same page. The text on the page labels the audio as an alternative but there are no controls.

Code Snippet: 
 <p>A part of a speech by John F. Kennedy: We choose to go to the moon in this decade and do the other things, not because they are easy, but because they are hard, because that goal will serve to organize and measure the best of our energies and skills, because that challenge is one that we are willing to accept, one we are unwilling to postpone, and one which we intend to win, and the others, too.</p>
<p>You can also listen to the audio file below to hear the above part of the speech.</p>

<audio src="../test-assets/moon-audio/moon-speech.mp3"> </audio>
Example Output: Open in a new tab/ window

Glossary

Non-streaming media element

An HTML Media Element for which the duration property is not 0.

Included in the accessibility tree

Elements included in the accessibility tree of platform specific accessibility APIs. Elements in the accessibility tree are exposed to assistive technologies, allowing users to interact with the elements in a way that meet the requirements of the individual user.

The general rules for when elements are included in the accessibility tree are defined in the core accessibility API mappings. For native markup languages, such as HTML and SVG, additional rules for when elements are [included in the accessibility tree][] can be found in the HTML accessibility API mappings and the SVG accessibility API mappings.

Note: Users of assistive technologies might still be able to interact with elements that are not included in the accessibility tree. An example of this is a focusable element with an aria-hidden attribute with a value of true. Such an element could still be interacted with using sequential keyboard navigation regardless of the assistive technologies used, even though the element would not be included in the accessibility tree.

Visible

Content perceivable through sight.

Content is considered visible if making it fully transparent would result in a difference in the pixels rendered for any part of the document that is currently within the viewport or can be brought into the viewport via scrolling.

Content is defined in WCAG.

Test Aspects

Test aspects are defined as part of the ACT Rules format 1.0.

  • DOM Tree

  • CSS Styling

  • Audio output

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