Solutions: Checkpoint B, multimedia equivalents

What are considered equivalent alternatives?

Captioning for the audio portion and audio description of visual information of multimedia presentations are considered equivalent alternatives. This provision requires that when an audio portion of a multimedia production is captioned, as required in provision (A), the captioning must be synchronized with the audio. Synchronized captioning would be required so someone reading the captions could also watch the speaker and associate relevant body language with the speech.

If a website offers audio files with no video, do they have to be captioned?

No, because it is not multimedia. However, since audio is a non-text element, a text equivalent, such as a transcript, must be available. Similarly, a (silent) web slide show presentation does not need to have an audio description accompanying it, but does require text alternatives to be associated with the graphics.

If you need assistance in captioning a video or transcribing an audio file, contact:

Automatic Sync Technologies

Kevin Erler

877-AST-SYNC
877-278-7962
info@automaticsync.com