What is Audio Description?
Audio description is an additional audio narration that describes important visual information—such as visuals, actions, characters, scene changes, and on-screen text—to make multimedia content accessible to people who are blind or have low vision. Audio descriptions for important or meaningful content are listed as a requirement within the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) Success Criterion 1.2.5.
When are Audio Descriptions required?
The creator of the video is in the best position to determine the importance of any given part of the visual elements within a video. As the context of the video and the visual elements presented within create an informational relationship that is specific to that video, it is difficult to list with specificity any particular element that must be described audibly.
Tip: To determine when your video needs audio description, close your eyes and listen to the existing audio. Do you fully understand what’s happening? Are you getting all of the important information from the audio alone? If so, you don’t need additional audio description.
There are some practices described within Universal Design for Learning (UDL) that improve the overall quality of the video, increase its accessibility to all viewers, and reduce or eliminate the need for adding secondary audio descriptions as a separate track. The best tool for accomplishing this is to practice Integrated Audio Description.
What is Integrated Audio Description?
Integrated Audio Description (also called spoken description or inclusive presentation) is the practice of weaving natural descriptions of visual content directly into your verbal delivery as you present, teach, or record lectures.
Unlike traditional audio description—which adds a separate voiceover track to a finished video during post-production—integrated audio description happens live, during the recording of the video. By intentionally describing important text, diagrams, gestures, and visual elements as you talk, you make your content fully accessible at the moment of delivery and eliminate the need for secondary audio descriptions.
Why Practice Integrated Audio Description?
1. Equity & Immediate Accessibility
Students who are blind, have low vision, or have processing differences receive 100% of the instructional content in real-time alongside their peers, without having to wait for remediated materials or rely on an assistant to describe the screen.
2. Universal Design for Learning (UDL)
Inclusive presentation techniques benefit far more than just students with visual impairments:
- Audio-Only / Mobile Learners: Students listening to lectures while commuting, exercising, or working.
- Overcrowded or Remote Classrooms: Students sitting in the back of a large lecture hall, viewing on small screens, or dealing with poor internet video quality.
- Cognitive & Attention Diversity: Explicitly stating what matters in a complex graphic helps focused, neurodivergent, or English-language learners process visual information faster.
3. Pedagogical Quality & Focus
When you describe a graph or visual, you force yourself to focus on the meaning of the visual rather than just its presence. This reinforces key takeaway concepts for all students.
4. Regulatory Compliance
State and federal laws require compliance with the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG), making integrated description a proactive step toward meeting these legal obligations.
5. Efficiency & Zero-Cost Compliance
Professional, post-production audio description costs between $10 and $30+ per minute and requires days of editing. By speaking visually inclusive descriptions naturally while presenting, you eliminate the need for third-party audio description entirely.
How to Do It: Essential Techniques
1. Eliminate Vague Spatial Language
Replace visual pointers ("this," "that," "here," "there") with descriptive verbal labels.
- Avoid: "As you can see over here in this top corner, this number leads to that result."
- Practice: "In the upper-right cell of the matrix, the value of 85% leads directly to the revised projected outcome on the bottom line."
2. Describe Data Visualizations (Charts, Graphs, Diagrams)
You do not need to describe every data point—focus on the structure and the main takeaway.
- Step 1: Orient the listener. State the type of visualization, title, and axes.
- Step 2: Highlight trends and key points. Describe significant peaks, drops, or groupings.
- Step 3: State the conclusion. Explain what the visual proves or illustrates.
Example Script:
"On this slide, we have a line graph titled 'Global Carbon Emissions from 1950 to 2020.' The horizontal X-axis shows time in decades, and the vertical Y-axis measures gigatons of CO₂. The trend line remains relatively flat until 1970, after which it rises steeply from 15 gigatons to over 35 gigatons by 2020. This steep upward slope highlights the rapid post-industrial increase in emissions."
3. Read or Summarize Slide Text & Key Images
- Text on Slides: Read key slide headers and essential text aloud. If a slide contains a long quote or bullet points, either read it verbatim or summarize every key point explicitly. Never say "I'll let you read this slide yourself" without summarizing its core message.
- Images & Photos: If an image is purely decorative (e.g., a generic photo of a stack of books), ignore it. If the image is instructional (e.g., a photo of a historical event or anatomical structure), briefly describe the subject and key visual features relevant to your lesson.
Example Script:
"This photograph shows a 1930s Dust Bowl farm in Oklahoma. A wooden farmhouse sits completely surrounded by sand dunes that reach halfway up the front door, illustrating the severe soil erosion of that era."
4. Narrate Live Software & Lab Demonstrations
When performing a live physical demonstration, coding exercise, or software walk-through, narrate your physical actions as you perform them.
- Avoid: "Now click here, select this option, and then drop it down into this box."
- Practice: "Now I’m moving my cursor to the top toolbar, selecting the 'Data Analysis' tab from the drop-down menu, and dragging the 'Sales' column into the 'Row Labels' box."
5. Managing Video Clips Played in Class
If you show a pre-recorded video during class that contains critical visual actions without narration:
- Pause and Summarize: Pause the video briefly at key moments to explain important visual events.
- Set the Stage: Before pressing play, give a quick 15-second summary of what happens visually in the clip.
Before and After Examples
Common instructional situations and how to change the way you describe them
| Situation |
Traditional Presentation (Visual-Dependent) |
Integrated Audio Description (Inclusive) |
| Formula / Equation |
"If you look at this equation on the board, this variable cancels out that one." |
"In the quadratic formula shown on the screen, $x$ equals negative $b$ plus or minus the square root of $b^2 - 4ac$, all over $2a$." |
| Anatomy / Diagram |
"This blue region controls speech, and this red part controls motor skills." |
"On this cross-section of the brain, the frontal lobe—shaded in blue on the left side—controls speech, while the motor cortex—shaded in red directly behind it—controls physical movement." |
| Software Demo |
"Next, just hit this green button and watch what happens." |
"Next, click the green 'Run Test' button in the lower left corner to generate the output table." |
Quick Checklist for Presentation Prep
Before delivering your lecture or recording a video, ask yourself:
- Have I removed phrases like "As you can see here..."?
- Are my slide titles spoken aloud as I transition slides?
- Did I state the key takeaways of every chart and graph?
- Am I narrating my mouse clicks or physical movements during demos?
- Is all essential slide text spoken or thoroughly summarized?