Captioning Basics

Any time there is multimedia, then a text equivalent of the audio portion needs to be included, usually as a caption or transcript. This text version is primarily for individuals who are deaf or hard of hearing and needs to include the dialogue, speaker information, and any sound effects present in the video. However providing a text version of the audio is also very useful for people who do not primarily speak in the same language as the presenter, people who are not in an environment where they can listen to sound, and it is also very useful for Search Engine Optimization (SEO).

There are different terms for the different types of text equivalent and they are used in different ways:

• Closed Captions: Closed captions are words that can be turned on and off on a video. This is the most common type of video captions and they are synchronized to the video.
• Open Captions: Open captions are 'burned into' the video so they are always on.
• Subtitles: Subtitles provide a text version of the dialogue only and often in different languages. Essentially, subtitles assume an audience can hear the audio but also need the dialogue provided as text.
• Transcripts: Transcripts are files that are not synchronized with the audio that contain all of the same information. This is the primary way for providing accessibility to audio only files, such as podcasts. While providing transcripts for video files is fine to do, that doesn't meet the accessibility requirement as the text needs to be synchronized.

Tips for captions

• Include all spoken information as well as relevant parts of the soundtrack like background noises, sound effects, speaker identification, and any audio cues that help the viewer understand the video. Typically these are indicated in brackets, such as [ Doorbell rings ] or parenthesis.
• Captions should be in the same language as the primary audio content.
• Use proper capitalization, punctuation and grammar.
• If the video has no audio, still include a caption track that indicates that, so users will know it wasn't just forgotten.