Audio Transcripts

The first WAI Guideline pertains not only to visual content such as images, but also to aural elements such as sound files. Access Art contains a large number of audio clips containing information about works of art spoken by various commentators. In order to implement Guideline 1, each narration is accompanied by an equivalent alternative in the form of an audio transcript. All of the recordings were carefully transcribed to ensure that the speaker's exact words were accurately rendered into text (including sentence fragments and grammatical errors), and to make sure that names, places and terms were spelled correctly.

A typical audio segment contains the comments of Alexander Lee Nyerges, Director of The Dayton Art Institute, recounting how the Museum acquired the painting Waterlilies by Claude Monet. The excerpt below shows how the transcript captures the conversational style of the narration, and also demonstrates the need for accuracy in transcribing names and places.

Claude Monet (1840 - 1926) French
WATERLILIES, 1903
Oil on canvas
Height 32 inches Width 40 inches
Gift of Mr. Joseph Rubin, 1953.11

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"It really isn't 'til you get to Monet's highest points, his series which include his series of Waterlilies, that we find the fully developed and fully mature essence of what we now regard as classical Impressionism. This was done in his garden in 1903, and probably represents the highest point of his entire Waterlilies series. This work was given to the Art Institute by a gentleman by the name of Mr. Joseph Rubin, who ran a company in New York City called the Loma Dress Corporation. And sometime before 1953, Dr. Esther Seaver, who was the Director of The Dayton Art Institute in the first part of the 1950s, had encountered this picture and was acquainted with a dealer in New York by the name of Silberman . . . "

When incorporated within Access Art, transcripts are provided alongside the audio clip itself, so Web visitors can choose the format that is appropriate for them. They can either select a link that plays the recording or simply read the transcript. In this manner, the two formats appear truly equivalent, since one is not presented as subordinate to the other.

Although not applicable to Access Art, it is sometimes necessary to enhance audio transcripts if there is meaning conveyed by more than just the words themselves. For instance, if an audio clip contains music or sound effects, these should be briefly described in the transcript. In addition, if the tone of voice is significant, or the speaker is portraying a particular character, this may also be alluded to in the transcript.

While Access Art does not contain video clips, the principle of equivalent alternatives also applies to video. In general, it is necessary to provide synchronized captions for all spoken words, as well as descriptions for sound effects, music and visuals. Further details and examples are available at the National Center for Accessible Media.