Xbox Accessibility Guideline 111: Audio descriptions

Goal

The goal of this Xbox Accessibility Guideline (XAG) is to ensure that full motion videos (FMVs) or other kinds of in-game scripted cinematic events provide an additional audio track that describes all essential visual information and context that occurs in a video or cinematic event. This ensures that players who can't see visual content have an additional means of understanding and enjoying the content.

Overview

An audio description track is commonly used by players who are blind or have low vision. It helps players understand what is visually happening that might not be obvious from the character dialogue or other audible sounds in a video. FMVs or cinematic scenes in games often contribute to the game’s story line or might provide key insights on how to navigate the game. Whether a player wants to understand the game’s story to its fullest or requires key information needed to play, providing an additional audio description track and allowing players to enable it during FMVs or cinematic events ensures that players have access to the information that sighted players do.

Scoping questions

Does your game include include FMVs, cutscenes, or other kinds of prerecorded, scripted cinematic events?

• Have you included audio description tracks that can be enabled by the player?

Key areas to target

The following are in-game areas where it's important to provide audio description tracks.

• FMVs that open the game or set the stage for new chapters that are unlocked

• Cutscenes mid-game

• In-game “advertisements” or promotional videos for downloadable content

• Tutorial or in-game “how-to” guides that are presented via prerecorded and scripted FMV

• FMVs played during loading screens

  Note

  Trailers and promotional videos for games are other areas where audio description tracks should be supported.

Implementation guidelines

• All media content that was broadcast previously with audio descriptions on television and that appears in a game or on the title’s website should be audio described.

  • Example: A game shows a 30-second video clip from a television show in one of its cutscenes. When this clip originally aired on television, audio descriptions were included in the broadcast. As a result, the game that was using this television clip as a cutscene should also provide audio descriptions for this clip when it appears in the game.

• Appropriately localized audio descriptions should be available for FMVs or in-game scripted cinematic events, if the player wants to enable them.

  • These descriptions should play during natural gaps during video playback. In cases where natural gaps are insufficient to allow audio descriptions to convey the sense of the video, extended audio descriptions can be provided. This temporarily pauses the video or scripted event to allow enough time for each segment of audio description to play out.

• If the game doesn't offer audio descriptions, consider providing full transcripts of all FMVs or in-game scripted cinematic events via an accessible website or other accessible format that includes important visual content, such as facial expressions of characters, narratively important actions, non-speech sounds, and dialogue.

Potential player impact

The guidelines in this XAG can help reduce barriers for the following players.

Resources and tools