Streaming Media

Streaming media is audio or video content delivered to a user in a continuous flow from a server, played back as it arrives rather than waiting for a complete download. Because streaming content produces transient sound and images, and often begins auto-playing as soon as a page loads, it introduces accessibility problems that static media does not: auto-playing audio can drown out a screen reader's synthesized speech, embedded media players often expose mouse-only controls with no keyboard equivalents, and live captions or audio descriptions must be synchronised with the stream in real time. WCAG requirements for captions, audio descriptions, and user control over auto-playing media all address streaming-specific accessibility concerns.