Who this is for: Content teams and accessibility reviewers planning multiple ways to understand a sequence.
What to prepare
- Approved original message, transcript and storyboard
- Meaningful sound and visual-information inventory
- Motion-purpose map and complete reference views
- Caption, language, subject and delivery reviewers
Copyable creative brief
An authored planning example. Replace illustrative details with your approved product facts and assets.
Illustrative job: adapt a 30-second conceptual route lesson showing Collect → Compare → Decide. Preserve stage names, order and the qualification that the route is illustrative. Prepare a caption plan for all speech and meaningful sound, a transcript containing the spoken explanation and necessary visual context, a sound-off storyboard with readable labels, and a restrained-motion storyboard using stable views and sequential highlights. Use one message inventory to compare the versions. Record any information that requires another alternative, such as visual detail not described by the narration. Deliver version-specific review criteria and named owners. Do not claim automatic generation, universal suitability or full accessibility compliance from these plans.
Make it your own
- MESSAGE_INVENTORY
- List each essential fact, relationship and qualification.
- VARIANT_MAP
- Specify captions, transcript, sound-off and restrained-motion treatments.
- EQUIVALENCE_CHECKS
- Define how each item remains available in each relevant version.
- DELIVERY_CONTEXT
- Identify player controls, page behavior and supporting reference material.
Separate the jobs each variant performs
Captions convey relevant audio information in synchronization with media. A transcript provides a text reference and may need descriptions of essential visual information. A sound-off composition makes the core explanation visible within the frame. A restrained-motion treatment reduces unnecessary movement while preserving orientation and relationships.
These jobs overlap but are not interchangeable. A short headline is not a complete caption for a detailed spoken explanation. A quieter film can still omit information, and a transcript alone does not demonstrate that the player or page is accessible.
Build the equivalence worksheet
Use rows for message item, original carrier, caption treatment, transcript treatment, sound-off treatment, restrained-motion treatment and unresolved gap. For the route example, stage order originally carried by travel becomes numbered labels and a stable overview in the restrained version.
For a meaningful latch sound in another lesson, captions need an accurate sound description and the sound-off scene may need a visible state cue. Keep qualifications in every version where the associated claim appears. Record intentional omissions only when they are nonessential to the approved message.
Review against current guidance
W3C's prerecorded-caption guidance covers speech, speaker identification and meaningful non-speech sound, with a defined text-alternative exception. Its interaction-motion guidance concerns the ability to disable nonessential animation triggered by web interaction. Use those references for their specific requirements rather than treating them as a blanket certification for a video package.
Have appropriate reviewers inspect the actual artifacts and delivery context. Check captions against final audio, transcript against final content and restrained views against the motion-purpose map. Include user-controlled playback and motion preferences in the website review.
Scope the handoff honestly
Suitable inputs include an approved original and clear ownership for language, subject matter and accessibility review. Unsuitable inputs include missing transcripts, undocumented visual claims or a request to certify compliance without inspecting the actual media and page. Resolve gaps before presenting a version as equivalent.
This resource describes planning work and responsibilities; it does not promise automatic caption, transcript or restrained-variant generation. Record exactly which files and contexts were checked and what remains unresolved.
Review checklist
- Every essential message item is mapped across relevant variants.
- Captions reflect final speech and meaningful sound.
- Restrained views preserve orientation and relationships.
- Media and hosting-page accessibility are reviewed separately.
Sources & further reading
- W3C: Captions (Prerecorded)
Explains synchronized captions for speech, speaker identity and meaningful sound, plus the text-alternative exception.
- W3C: Animation from Interactions
Explains the Level AAA web criterion for disabling nonessential motion initiated by interaction; it is not a certification for a video variant.