Digital Invitation for a Wedding With Audio Description

A guest opens your link on the bus. Their phone reads the page out loud, and the first thing it says is "here". Then "tap here". Then a photo with nothing behind it. That guest is blind, or reads with a screen reader, and right now they know nothing: not the time, not the address, not what to wear. Audio description on a digital invitation isn't a studio voiceover or an extra page. It's the plain text you write so the page still works when it's spoken. You can create a digital invitation from the catalogue and send it today, and this part takes about twenty minutes of writing.

What follows is that writing. Three facts in the right order, one sentence per photo, and a dress code spelled out in words you'd actually say out loud. No special software involved.

How to Create a Digital Invitation With Audio Description

Start with the time, not the flowers. Before you describe the arch, answer what a guest needs to leave the house: when, where, and how to walk in. "Ceremony at 6pm in the village chapel, ten minutes on foot from the car park" already counts as audio description. It's specific, it's in order, and it doesn't depend on seeing anything.

• Write the time and the full address as text, never only inside an image or a map pin.
• Add one physical landmark: "the stone church on the square, green door on the left".
• Describe each photo in a sentence: who's in it, where they are, what's behind them.
• Translate the dress code into real words: "gravel path, flat shoes are the better call".

The Text Read Aloud Is Not the Text on Screen

A screen reader reads words, not gestures. Swap "here" for "the south gate of the venue". Swap "as you can see in the photo" for what the photo actually shows. If a sentence only works with a finger pointing at the screen, rewrite that sentence.

The dress code is where most invitations lose people. "Elegant" tells a guest nothing. "Long table in a garden, grass underfoot, block heels or wedges" gives them a decision they can make tonight. Same in the RSVP: ask the questions you'll actually use, because the answers land in a list inside the invitation, not in a thread of WhatsApp replies.

Digital Invitations vs. PDFs: Same Link, Always Current

A PDF is a picture of a page. Digital invitations are web pages, which is why the text can be read out by the phone in the first place, with no app to install. It also means you can fix the time, the map or the dress code after sending, and the same link shows the new version. No reprints, no second envelope, nobody turning up with last month's details.

If your invitation makes sense with your eyes closed, nobody has to phone you to ask where the church is.

Photos, the Map and the Dress Code: Where Accessibility Breaks

A photo without a description is decoration nobody can hear: write "long table under the olive trees, tall candles, raw linen cloth". The map pin alone doesn't help someone who can't see the screen, so put the written address and a landmark next to it. Before you hit publish, open the invitation on your own phone with the screen reader on and listen to the order. If it makes sense from top to bottom, it's ready. If not, rewrite that line. Build that version once and one link covers every guest, including the one who would otherwise text you at 5pm to ask what time it starts.