Often expensive, and always time consuming, captioning is one of the least established forms of web accessibility.
In spite of the high priority the guidelines give captioning, it's still rare to find captioned video on the web. Checkpoint 1.2.4 recommends that captions are provided for live video content as well, as a Level AA priority. Checkpoint 1.2.2 advises that captions should be provided for pre-recorded video as a Level A priority. The Web Content Accessibility Guidelines recommend that captions are provided for video content. For example the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines talk about captions, rather than subtitles. This distinction has carried across to the web. Captions are presented in the same language as the original sound track, do include sound effects, and are for the benefit of hearing impaired people. In America subtitles are foreign language translations and don’t include any sound effects. In the UK, captions on television are often called subtitles.
It's worth taking a moment to look at some of the different terminology used first though. Both open and closed captioning can also be found on the web. A specific decoder is needed to access them, which means that closed captions are only visible to people who need them.Ĭaptions are not only used on television. At the time this wasn't popular with hearing viewers, so a system of closed captioning was developed.Ĭlosed captions are hidden within the television signal. The first programmes used open captioning, which meant that the text was displayed on screen for everyone to see. Providing real time translation of dialogue and sound effects into text format also provides a much wider group of people with a more engaging experience.Ĭaptions were first used on American television in the early 1970s. Captions make a huge difference to deaf and hard of hearing people who access video on the web.
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