Instant Descriptive Transcripts
AI turns any video into a screen-reader-ready text file, effortlessly.
Our platform creates descriptive transcripts for any video in seconds. It captures everything your audience needs to experience a video: spoken words, speaker names, on-screen text, key visuals and sound effects, all in a text file that screen readers can read.
Trusted by thousands of customers, from agencies to enterprises
From Video to Descriptive Transcript in Seconds
AI checks your video for accessibility, tells you if a descriptive transcript is needed, generates one, and lets you review and export the file you need.
AI Video Check & Report
Upload your video and our AI will automatically analyse it to determine if a descriptive transcript is required for accessibility compliance.
Instant AI Descriptive Transcript
Click once to create a complete descriptive transcript in seconds, capturing dialogue, speaker names, on-screen words, key visuals and sound effects.
Review & Download
Tweak the draft in our browser editor, then export WebVTT, SRT, TXT or HTML and attach it to your video player, LMS, CMS or retailer portal.
Descriptive Transcripts at Work
Descriptive transcripts improve video accessibility, increase search visibility and enhance the viewer experience.
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Product demo videos
Retail partners require a descriptive transcript for product listings, especially for listings without narration. Supplying one keeps listings live, meets accessibility laws, and adds search-friendly text for SEO.
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Customer tutorials & how-to guides
Viewers who rely on screen readers can follow along step by step, while all users benefit from searchable text they can scan, copy, or translate.
Animated learning or e-learning modules
Animations often have no spoken narration. A descriptive transcript explains the visuals and on-screen text, making training materials fully accessible and WCAG compliant.
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Webinars, interviews & internal meetings
A transcript that covers dialogue, speaker names, slides, charts, and sound cues creates an inclusive record, simplifies note-taking, and lets teams repurpose content for blogs or knowledge bases.
Bottom line: if your video contains important visuals not spoken aloud, providing a descriptive transcript is the quickest, standards-aligned way to satisfy WCAG, EAA and ADA obligations.
Why Descriptive Transcripts Matter
Improve video accessibility, boost search visibility and enhance the viewer experience with every video.
Accessibility
Meets WCAG 2.1 and European Accessibility Act (EAA) requirements, giving blind, low-vision and deaf-blind users full access to your videos.
Comprehension
Creates a complete, searchable text record so viewers can scan, quote or translate content without replaying the video.
Flexibility
One file powers captions, localisation, SEO snippets and screen-reader output, and drops straight into any player, LMS, CMS or retailer portal.
Compliance & SEO
Keeps you on the right side of accessibility laws while adding keyword-rich text that boosts search visibility.
Faster Descriptive Transcripts, Lower Costs, and Accessibility Built In
Subly is the only platform that automatically generates accurate descriptive transcripts and full text alternatives for video, WCAG-ready, accessibility-compliant, correctly formatted and built for scale.
Faster than agencies that handle one file at a time. Subly processes unlimited videos in parallel.
More affordable than manual descriptive transcript creation, thanks to Subly’s AI automation—cutting operational costs significantly.
First to market: no other AI platform matches Subly’s accuracy for automated descriptive transcripts— delivered in the right formats with minimal user input.
Frequently Asked Questions
We've got answers! Browse through our FAQ section to find quick solutions and detailed explanations to some of the most common queries. Whether you're just getting started or need specific guidance, our comprehensive FAQs are here to assist you every step of the way.
Request a demoGetting Started
A descriptive transcript, sometimes called a full-text alternative, audio description transcript or media alternative, is a text-only version of a video or audio programme. It weaves together spoken dialogue, speaker names, on-screen text, key visual details and relevant sound effects, giving anyone who is blind, low-vision or deaf blind everything needed to follow the content without seeing or hearing it.
Descriptive transcript (W3 Language): a text-only alternative that includes dialogue, sound effects, speaker names and visual descriptions to make videos fully accessible without audio or visuals.
Captions/subtitles: on-screen text showing dialogue and limited sound cues; they do not describe visuals.
Standard transcript: text of spoken content only; usually lacks visuals, sound effects and speaker names.
Audio description (AD): an additional audio track that narrates important visual details between dialogue for blind or low-vision users.
A basic transcript is a plain text version of all spoken words and some non-speech audio (like music or sound effects). It helps make content accessible to people who are Deaf, hard of hearing or those who process text better than audio.
A descriptive transcript includes everything in a basic transcript plus visual details like on-screen text, key actions and visual context. It’s essential for people who are Deafblind or those who need a complete text alternative to both the audio and visuals. If you provide a descriptive transcript, a separate basic transcript is not required.
An interactive transcript is linked to the video and highlights text as it’s spoken. Users can click on any part of the text to jump to that point in the video. This feature is powered by the captions file and depends on the media player being used.
A descriptive transcript combines dialogue, sound effects and visual descriptions into a time-coded text format that can be read by screen readers. It gives users a full understanding of what’s happening in the video—even if they can’t see or hear it. Here’s an example of what that might look like:
00:00 [Soft piano intro]
00:02 Narrator (Ella): Welcome to the 2025 product showcase.
00:05 [Text on screen: “UltraClean X200” appears]
00:06 Camera pans across a silver vacuum cleaner on a hardwood floor.
00:12 Ella: It weighs under 3 kg and…
Each line captures either a spoken word, a sound cue, or a key visual element, keeping everything in sync with the video’s timeline. Time stamps (00:05) are optional but common when the file will also serve as a WebVTT track. Square bracket cues describe non-speech audio or visual actions. Speaker labels clarify who is talking.
Plain TXT or HTML for simple publishing or download.WebVTT (.vtt) or SRT (.srt) when synchronisation with the video player is needed.Occasionally TTML or DFXP for broadcasters.
Descriptive Transcripts & the Law
Under WCAG 2.1:
Level A (Success Criterion 1.2.3) lets you choose either audio description or a “media alternative”—a full-text descriptive
transcript—for pre-recorded video. W3C
Level AA adds a separate requirement for audio description (SC 1.2.5). A descriptive transcript can still satisfy Level A but
does not replace audio description for Level AA.
Level AAA (SC 1.2.8) makes a descriptive transcript mandatory for all time-based media. Providing one is the simplest way
to future-proof content and meet every level.
Yes—indirectly. The EAA points to EN 301 549, which in turn requires compliance with WCAG 2.1 Level AA for web and digital media. That standard contains SC 1.2.3, so any video whose visuals are not fully conveyed in the audio track must include either audio description or a descriptive transcript. For silent product demos and marketing clips, a descriptive transcript is the most practical route to compliance.
The ADA’s core rule is “effective communication”. Recent DOJ guidance and the 2024 Title II web-accessibility rule adopt WCAG 2.1 Level AA as the benchmark. Courts and settlement agreements routinely accept a descriptive transcript (or audio description) as the necessary accommodation when visuals convey information that isn’t in the audio. For U.S. federal sites, Section 508 also references WCAG 2.1 AA, so the same logic applies. ADA.gov
Descriptive Transcripts and More
Descriptive transcripts are just one part of Subly’s accessibility platform. With tools like our AI Accessibility Agent, in-browser Editor, Captions, Audio Description, and Colour Contrast Checker, you get everything you need to make video content accessible, compliant, and scalable — all in one place.
AI Agent & Report
Automatically finds every accessibility issue and shows you exactly where to fix it.
Fix & Edit Accessibility Issues
Instantly fix accessibility issues with AI, or fine-tune in the editor.
