What Is Caption Accessibility?

Direct definition

Caption accessibility means the timed text actually works for people who cannot hear the audio: accurate words, sync, completeness, useful sound cues, and a player that can display the track.

The sections below explain how caption accessibility is used in transcription and subtitle work, what people often mix up, and which VideoText workflow applies when the next step is a file or review pass.

Key takeaways

• A file that exists but is wrong is not an accessible caption track.
• FCC quality language: accurate, synchronous, complete, appropriately placed.
• Only 14% of 3Play’s 2024 respondents believed raw auto captions were accessible.

How accessibility is judged

Legal regimes use different tests. WCAG 1.2.2 is a web standard. 47 C.F.R. § 79.1 states television quality attributes. Neither is satisfied by an unreviewed ASR dump on difficult audio.

Related terms

• WCAG
• closed captions
• SDH
• word error rate
• All glossary terms

Sources

1. FCC: 47 CFR § 79.1 captioning quality
2. 3Play Media: 2024 State of Captioning Report