Video and Audio Accessibility Requirements

Closed captions are added to a video to ensure all auditory material, including music and sounds, are perceivable to people who are Deaf or hard of hearing and can be turned off and on using the "cc" button on the video player. 

Captions differ from subtitles in that captions include all auditory content, not just speech. Subtitles are designed for a hearing audience, so they do not include any information about sounds other than dialogue. 

Closed captions must satisfy the following accessibility requirements:

  1. Captions must be complete, which means the video must be captioned from start to finish, including noting opening music and background noises, when intentional.
  2. Captions must be 99% accurate. This means, literally, word-for-word, including punctuation, capitalization and spelling. Many video-hosting platforms offer auto-generated captions, which can be a helpful starting point, but must be reviewed and edited for accuracy.
  3. Captions should display synchronously with the audio, running neither too fast or too slow, and they should be on-screen an adequate amount of time to allow careful reading.
  4. Caption placement should not obscure other important information. Usually, captions are placed at the bottom of the screen.
  5. Captions should include ambient sounds such as music, wind, birds singing, bells ringing, etc.. especially if they add meaning to the content. These are noted in brackets: [birds singing].  For instance if your video begins with music, then add [music] to the first slide before speaking begins.

Captioning Resources

Explore these captioning resources to support your work: