Captions provide a text alternative in video or animation. They’re an essential element for many people who are deaf or hard of hearing but they can also be useful in noisy environments, on public transport, etc. Captions typically include:
- the spoken words and any important sounds needed to understand the content
- speaker identification when more than one person is talking
- timing that matches the audio closely enough to follow the video
For example:
[door slams]
John: We need to leave now.
Live captions
For live meetings, events and presentations, use live captioning where available.
If a recording will be published afterwards, review the live captions and correct significant errors before treating them as the final captions.
Reviewing captions
Please note: Automatically generated captions, while a useful starting point, always need to be checked for accuracy.
Watch part of the video with the sound turned off to see if you can still follow what’s happening on screen. Pay particular attention to see if captions appear at the right time, are legible, do not obscure important information in the video.
Sources and further guidance: W3C — Captions/Subtitles; W3C — Making Audio and Video Media Accessible