Proper captioning is essential for providing equitable digital access to everyone. Although primarily used by individuals with disabilities, captions can benefit anyone.
This article will explore what captioning is, the difference between closed and open captioning, and why closed captioning, in particular, is crucial for accessibility. So, let’s dive in!
What Does “Captioning” Mean?
Captioning refers to the process of adding captions to videos. Captions are text representations of the audio in a video, including dialogue and noises), which are commonly displayed over the video, similar to subtitles.
The captions should align with the dialogue and sounds in the video, ensuring correct spelling and appearing on screen approximately when the audio is delivered.
Since captions serve as an accessibility feature, they must be easily accessible to those who need or prefer them.
Closed vs. Open Captioning
Captions have historically been classified as either “closed” or “open.” Closed captioning allows users to toggle captions on and off and customize their styling (color, size, etc.).
In contrast, open captioning integrates captions directly into the video and cannot be turned off or styled in any way.
Closed captioning has generally replaced open captioning, as closed captioning offers users more flexibility regarding whether to turn captions on or off and how they appear on screen. As a result, closed captioning has become practically synonymous with the general term “captions.”
Why are Captions so Important?
WCAG Success Criterion 1.2.2 requires that nearly all videos have captions. This criterion states that captions must be provided for all prerecorded audio content in synchronized media, except when the media serves as a media alternative for text and is clearly labeled as such.
Captioned videos primarily benefit individuals who are deaf or have hearing loss. Captions enable these users to understand auditory information through text, ensuring that everyone can fully grasp video content regardless of their hearing ability.
Captions are not only for individuals with hearing loss. They can also be helpful to people in quiet environments who do not have headphones or who wish to verify the spelling of certain terms in videos.
Captions are also beneficial for people in restaurants or other noisy areas who are unable to hear the audio. They can also help people learn English (or other languages).
Do Not Rely on Automatic Captions
It can be helpful to start by generating automatic captions when writing them. This can save captioners time and effort. However, you must ALWAYS edit automatic captions! YouTube’s automatic captions are typically only about 60-70% accurate.
This means that roughly 1 in 3 words are inaccurate, which is a significant problem! Factors like background noise and accents may further reduce the accuracy of automatic captions.
Accurate captions can also protect you or your organization from legal action. In 2013, the University of Maryland was sued for having uncaptioned videos on its website, and Harvard and MIT were recently sued as well.
Captioning Best Practices
There are additional captioning best practices beyond accuracy. High-quality captions must be consistent, meaning all captions in a video are in the same style and presented uniformly. This consistency and predictability make it much easier to watch the video.
Captions must also be clear, providing a complete textual representation of all audio.
Captions also need to be easily readable. They must be displayed with enough time to be read completely, synchronized with the audio, and not obscured by (nor do they obscure) the visual content. Unreadable captions defeat the purpose of captions!
Finally, captions need to preserve the meaning and intention of the material conveyed in the video.
Allyant Can Help with Captioning
Contact our expert digital accessibility team with any questions or concerns related to captioning. Testing for accurate, high-quality captions is essential to digital accessibility and our work here at Allyant.
Quality captions help ensure equitable digital access and safeguard against potential legal risks.
