Ensure images, video and audio are accessible to everyone

Users with visual impairments may not be able to see or interpret visual content, such as images and video. As developers, you must ensure that text equivalents are available that accurately describe the nature of all visual content. You should provide audio descriptions to help users understand video content. Users with hearing or cognitive impairments, and those for whom the language spoken in any video content is not their primary language, may not be able to hear or understand spoken audio in video content. Transcripts and closed captions should be provided; closed captions need to be synced to the video content.

You must ensure that users have complete control over what they can see and hear. If you have any moving content – video, animation, image or text based carousels – you must provide a way to allow them to pause or stop the content.

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This guidance currently aligns with the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.1 and is being updated to reflect WCAG 2.2.

Organisations subject to the Web Accessibility Directive or the European Accessibility Act should refer to WCAG 2.2 (W3C.org)(w3.org) (w3.org)(w3.org) (w3.org)(w3.org) (w3.org), as compliance will be required when the revised EN 301 549 standard (PDF)(etsi.org) (etsi.org)(etsi.org) (etsi.org)(etsi.org) (etsi.org) is published in the Official Journal of the European Union in December 2026.

In this section

References for this section

WCAG 2.1

EN 301 549 v 2.1.2

9.1.1.1 Non-text Content
9.1.2.1 Audio-only and Video-only (Pre-recorded)
9.1.2.2 Captions (Pre-recorded)
9.1.2.3 Audio Descriptions or Media Alternative (Pre-recorded)
9.1.2.4 Captions (Live)
9.1.2.5 Audio Description (Pre-recorded)
9.1.4.2 Audio Control
9.2.2.2 Pause, Stop, Hide
9.2.3.1 There Flashes or Below Threshold

Ensure images, video and audio are accessible to everyone

In this section

References for this section

WCAG 2.1

EN 301 549 v 2.1.2

Videos

Further reading