What Is YouTube Audio Description
An audio description refers to an additional narrative track that provides verbal descriptions of visual elements in a video. Generally speaking, these descriptions serve as a complement to the existing audio (such as dialogue or music) and are typically inserted into natural pauses in the video. Once it’s in the proper timing, it won’t overlay with any of the spoken text or other important audio elements.
The audio description is often designed to be concise, offering context that might not be evident from the audio alone. By providing additional context, it prevents viewers from missing additional information and helps individuals who are blind or low-version understand what is happening on the screen.
For example, in a cooking video, an audio description might say: “The host, wearing a blue apron, is chopping a yellow onion on a wooden cutting board.” In a gaming video, it might describe: “A middle-aged man sits on a chair and puts on headphones to play League of Legends.”
Why Are Audio Description Important
Audio description is an important tool for making online content more inclusive. Here’s why they’re important:
#Improve accessibility for visually impaired users
As we mentioned before, audio description often helps blind or low-version individuals understand and enjoy videos better. These users may rely on assistive technology like screen readers and braille displays to access online information. Audio description offers important details about visual elements in videos that they might not be able to see.
For instance, if a person with vision impairment is watching a tutorial on YouTube, audio description can explain important actions, objects, or visual effects that may not be clearly conveyed by audio alone. This way, everyone can have a more complete understanding of the content.
#Enhance learning for all users
Besides, audio description can also benefit others who have no vision impairments. For example, it can enhance comprehension for people learning English as a second language because it provides additional context and visual cues for clarity. Likewise, in noisy environments where users may not be able to see the video clearly, additional verbal information can help them follow along more easily.
#Compliance with Accessibility Standards
YouTube is increasingly being asked to adhere to higher accessibility standards. By providing audio description, YouTube ensures that it meets the guidelines set by accessibility organizations, such as the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG), the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), and other international standards.
#Expand audience reach
YouTube is a platform that people all over the world can access. Adding audio description to your videos not only helps make them easier to enjoy for those with disabilities, but it also makes your content more appealing to everyone.
How to Add Audio Description to YouTube Video
For video creators, adding audio description to YouTube videos is an important step in making content accessible, but it requires effort. You need to create an audio description track first and then upload the file to your YouTube videos. Here’s a step-by-step guide:
Step 1: Create the audio description track
There are two ways to create the audio description for your YouTube videos:
#Way 1: Manually create an audio description track
You can write the audio description manually and then record it by yourself. Pay attention to making the audio description concise and timed to sync with the visuals.
#Way 2: Use a third-party YouTube audio description generator
For creators who don’t want to manually create an audio description, there are third-party services that can assist in this process. These tools can automatically generate audio descriptions for the visual elements of a video or offer professional services to produce high-quality audio description tracks.
One tool you can try is 3Play Media, a paid media accessibility platform that provides audio description, closed-captioning, and subtitling services for video content, television, and podcasts.
Step 2: Upload Your Audio Description File to Your YouTube Video
Once the audio description is ready, you can upload it as a separate audio track in the YouTube Studio. You can complete the upload process by following these steps:
1. Navigate to YouTube Studio.
2. Select Subtitles in the left menu, and click the video you’d like to add an audio description.
3. Under Video subtitles, select your language and click on Confirm.
4. Click Add under Subtitles. In the pop-up window, click on Upload file to upload the audio description file. Make sure the file is in a supported audio-only file format and is approximately the same length as the video.
5. Click the Publish button to upload the audio description to your YouTube video.
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Bottom Line
YouTube audio description plays a vital role in making the content more accessible for users with visual impairments and helping to expand its reach. If you would like to learn how to add audio description to YouTube video, just follow the guide in this post.
About The Author
Position: Columnist
Lydia is always interested in new things and has been attracted deeply by writing. Her love for writing makes her become an English editor about multimedia in MiniTool. She’s determined to write articles about photos, audio, video, and other news to offer readers useful suggestions. In her spare time, she enjoys traveling, reading, photography, and having fun with friends.