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What is Video Alt Text?

Video alt text concisely describes a video’s essential visual subject or purpose for people who cannot perceive it. Because HTML video lacks an alt attribute, the description appears in nearby accessible content or player metadata.

How Video Alt Text works

A textual alternative for video communicates the visual purpose or essential information that surrounding prose, dialogue, and captions do not already provide. Its scope depends on context: a decorative loop may need no additional description, while a silent demonstration may need a concise explanation or a fuller transcript. Since the media element has no image-style alt field, authors must deliberately associate or position the text. This accessibility copy is prepared with player metadata and editorial review.

Key facts

  1. An accessible name for the player identifies the control or title but does not necessarily describe the video’s visual content; naming and content alternatives solve separate problems.
  2. Captions represent speech and important sounds, whereas a visual description conveys actions, appearance, diagrams, or on-screen changes that cannot be inferred from the audio.
  3. Nearby descriptive text can be programmatically associated with the player through an accessible description, but duplicate visible and hidden copies may cause screen readers to announce it twice.

When Video Alt Text matters

Provide a description when visuals convey information that dialogue or captions omit. Without one, screen-reader users may miss the video’s purpose even when playback controls are accessible.

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