Media Accessibility Information, Guidelines and Research
What are Captions?
Captions (sometimes called “subtitles”) are the textual representation of a video’s soundtrack. They are critical for viewers who are deaf or hard of hearing, and they are also a great tool for improving the reading and listening skills of others. Unlike subtitles, captions provide information such as sound effects and speaker identification.
If you upload video to the Web, and that video includes sound, you should always include a text alternative, such as captions. As an added bonus, since most captioning for the Web relies on text, providing captions for your videos will ensure that they are indexed by search engines more quickly and accurately, meaning your video will reach more people.
What’s in a Caption?
A video’s captions can transmit information such as:
Narration
Accent/Dialect
Hesitation
Stuttering
Dialogue
On-screen dialogue
Off-screen dialogue
Unknown speaker
Sound Effects
Onomatopoeia
SFX description
SFX description/onomatopoeia
Other Informaton
Accent/dialect
Think/dream
Music
The Benefits of Captions
- Captions help children with word identification, meaning, acquisition, and retention.
- Reading captions motivates viewers to read more and read more often.
- Captions can help children establish a systematic link between the written word and the spoken word.
- Pre-readers, by becoming familiar with captions, will have familiar signposts when they begin reading print-based material.
- Captioning has been related to higher comprehension skills when compared to viewers [...]