The world of accessibility is moving fast. With the EU Accessibility Act (EAA) **now live** and ADA updates just around the corner, organisations can’t afford to guess what “accessible” means anymore. Web designers are central to building accessible websites, but accessibility goes beyond code and layouts. Media — video and audio — is everywhere, yet too often overlooked, even though it is explicitly covered by accessibility regulations. To create truly inclusive experiences, every team needs to understand that media accessibility is just as critical as web accessibility. Subtitles or audio descriptions alone don’t cut it. You need tools that go deeper, move faster, and scale across every team.
That’s why at Subly, we’ve been building. And today, we’re rolling out two of our biggest updates yet — designed to take the pain out of accessibility and give you confidence that your media meets global standards.
⚡ Media Accessibility Checker: Now Smarter, Faster, More Precise
Forget manual reviews and consultant back-and-forth. Teams don’t need more guidelines. They need tools to get the job done, especially when they aren’t accessibility experts. Our Media Accessibility Checker provides exactly that: a precise, frame-by-frame scan of your media against global accessibility standards (WCAG) and best practices, flagging exactly what needs attention so nothing gets missed.
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Here’s what it covers:
- Captions: Present, correctly formatted, and readable (speed + line length).
- Audio descriptions: Highlights when missing for important visuals.
- Image descriptions: Confirms key visuals are described somewhere (audio, captions, transcript).
- Descriptive transcripts: Identifies when they’re needed.
- Text contrast & motion: Validates WCAG ratios, flags flashing risks.
- Language tags & accuracy: Checks validity and changes.
- Clarity: Reviews spoken content for comprehension.
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Upload a file, get a full accessibility report in seconds, and see exactly where your content falls short — no guesswork, no delays.
🌍 Automated Descriptive Transcript Generator
This one’s a first. Subly is now the only platform that can automatically generate descriptive transcripts — even when a video has no audio at all.
Why it matters:
- Descriptive transcripts are required by accessibility standards.
- It is essential to provide transcripts and text captions for all audio and video content to support users who are deaf or hard of hearing. But transcripts alone are not always enough. Descriptive transcripts go further by including details about important visuals, on-screen text, and sound effects, ensuring people who are blind, low vision, or deafblind can fully understand the content.
- Marketplaces like Amazon and Sephora are starting to demand them
- They’re critical for silent explainers, product demos, onboarding videos, and tutorials.
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Each transcript pulls together:
- Spoken dialogue
- Video's dialogue
- Speaker names
- On-screen text
- Key visual details
- Sound effects
- Audio content
- Video description
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Providing a descriptive transcript gives users an alternative way to access both the spoken and visual elements of media in one place, making the content fully understandable without relying on sight or sound.
That means anyone who is blind, low vision, or deafblind gets the full story, without missing a thing.
🎬 Don’t Forget the Video Player: Accessible Video Formats and Players
Subly takes care of making your media accessible — from captions and descriptive transcripts to audio descriptions — but accessibility doesn’t end there. The way your content is delivered is just as important. Choosing the right video player can make or break the experience for users who rely on assistive technologies, so we’ve pulled together some practical guidelines to help you get it right.
Making video content accessible isn’t just a best practice—it’s a requirement under the latest web content accessibility guidelines (WCAG 2.2). To ensure your video content is accessible to everyone, including users with visual impairments or those relying on assistive technologies, it’s essential to provide a range of alternative formats. This means offering audio descriptions, closed captions, and a media alternative transcript that delivers a text-based version of the video’s dialogue and visual elements.
Choosing the right video players is just as important. Accessible video players—like YouTube, Vimeo, and modern HTML5 players—support features such as keyboard navigation, high contrast modes, and seamless integration with screen readers and other assistive technologies. These players often include options for automatically generated captions, customizable playback controls, and support for open captions, making it easier for all users to engage with your video content.
When preparing your video content, consider offering it in multiple formats (for example, MP4 and WebM) to ensure compatibility across different browsers and devices. Providing a descriptive transcript alongside your video ensures that users who prefer or require a text-based version—such as those with visual impairments or limited internet connection—can access the same information as everyone else.
Consistency is key when it comes to accessibility across your website. Make sure that accessible video content and navigation features are available on multiple pages, not just a single landing page. Automated tools like axe core and Chrome extensions can help web developers quickly identify and resolve accessibility issues, ensuring your web pages meet the latest content accessibility guidelines (WCAG).
Don’t forget about audio descriptions and extended audio descriptions. These provide essential context for users who can’t see the visual elements of your video, describing key actions, on-screen text, and other important visual information. Audio descriptions can be included as a separate audio track or integrated into the original audio, and should always be synchronized with the video content for a seamless experience.
Accessibility considerations also mean relying solely on technologies and formats that are supported by assistive technologies. For example, using open captions ensures that users with hearing impairments can access your video content, even if their device or browser doesn’t support closed captions.
By following the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG 2.2), using accessible video players, and providing alternative formats like transcripts and audio descriptions, web developers can make video content accessible to all users. Leveraging automated tools to test for accessibility issues and maintaining consistent standards across all web pages helps create a level playing field—ensuring everyone has equal access to your content, regardless of their abilities.
🚨 Why These Updates Matter
Accessibility has hit an inflection point. The pressure is on from all sides:
- Regulators: EAA compliance is already in force.
- Platforms: Amazon and others are tightening rules for video content.
- Audiences: Customers expect inclusive experiences everywhere.
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There is a growing demand for accessible content and accessible videos, making it essential to ensure all video and audio content is accessible to people with disabilities.
The problem? Manual processes are too slow, too costly, and too error-prone. Most teams don’t have accessibility experts on staff. And scaling accessibility across hundreds of videos is nearly impossible without automation.
These new releases close that gap. They’re built for scale, speed, and accuracy — so you can focus on storytelling, not compliance. These updates help organizations meet new success criteria and are a step toward improving web accessibility.
✨ What’s Next
We’re not stopping here. Accessibility standards are evolving, and so are we. Future updates will continue to align with the latest WCAG guidelines to ensure our solutions meet current accessibility requirements. Expect more updates that expand automation, deepen compliance reporting, and make it even easier to integrate accessibility directly into your workflows.
Try It Now
Both the Accessibility Checker and the Automated Descriptive Transcript Generator are live in Subly today.
Upload a file. Run a scan. Generate a transcript. See accessibility done differently.
🔥 With these releases, Subly is setting the standard for media accessibility automation — helping teams everywhere create content that is compliant, inclusive, and ready for the future.
