Video without captions

The absence of captions on videos is an accessibility issue that directly excludes deaf and hard-of-hearing people. WCAG success criterion 1.2.2 requires that prerecorded synchronized media (video with audio) be accompanied by synchronized captions. For videos containing speech, synchronized captions are indispensable. Captions are not translations: they are the synchronized text transcription of a video's audio content in the same language. They must include not only dialogue but also relevant sound information (music, background noise, sound effects) that contribute to understanding the content. A caption that indicates '[dramatic music]' or '[door slamming]' provides essential context that dialogue text alone does not convey. Automatic captioning offered by YouTube, Vimeo, and other platforms is a starting point but is rarely sufficient as-is. Speech recognition algorithms make errors, particularly with regional accents, technical vocabulary, proper nouns, and noisy environments. Unreviewed and uncorrected automatic captioning can be misleading and does not satisfy WCAG quality requirements. Captions must be synchronized with the audio track, segmented into readable units (no more than two lines of 37 characters), and positioned so as not to obscure important visual information. The standard format for the web is WebVTT (.vtt), integrated via the track element in the HTML video tag. For videos hosted on third-party platforms (YouTube, Vimeo), captions must be uploaded to the platform via its built-in captioning tools.

Worldwide, approximately 466 million people have disabling hearing loss. Without captions, your site's videos are totally inaccessible to these people. They cannot follow a product presentation, understand a tutorial, or watch a client testimonial. This represents lost information and potentially lost revenue. Captions also benefit a much wider audience than people with hearing disabilities. People in noisy environments (public transport, open offices), people watching a video without sound (at the office, at night), and people whose native language is not the video's language all use captions. According to a Verizon Media study, 80% of people who use captions are not deaf or hard of hearing. Captions also improve SEO: caption text is indexed by search engines, making your videos discoverable via text search.