In the next few spotlights, we’ll be looking at the 9 WCAG guidelines (1.2.1 - 1.2.9) relating to making time-based media, such as audio and video content, accessible. Note that these guidelines solely focus on making the content within the audio or video accessible and these don’t include standards relating to how audio and video content are to be used (eg 1.4.2).

What we cover in this spotlight

Because this is an extensive topic with 9 guidelines, we’ve divided the topic into 3 spotlights:

• The A and AA requirements related to using captions (WCAG 1.2.2 & 1.2.4) - It’s the topic of this spotlight.

• The A and AA requirements related to using audio descriptions and transcripts (WCAG 1.2.1, 1.2.3 & 1.2.5) - It’s the topic of Spotlight 8.

• The AAA requirements related to time-based media (WCAG 1.2.6-1.2.9) - We’ll cover these in Spotlight 9.

So, in this spotlight, let’s have a look at the A and AA requirements related to captions. 

What are the guidelines for captions?

Providing captions is an A (basic) requirement for pre-recorded videos that have sound (1.2.2) and it’s an AA (intermediate) requirement for live content such as a webinar (1.2.4). 

What are captions?

Captions are similar to subtitles in that they should include dialogue that is synchronized to the spoken words and any action happening in the video. However, the difference is that, unlike subtitles, captions also need to include any information necessary to fully understand the video without any sound. For that reason, it should also indicate who is speaking and include any non-speech information like change in voice or background sounds. 

How do you create captions?

There are two ways to add subtitles to video content: manually and automatically. Manually works great if you have a copy of the script used in the video that you could copy and paste in. This might not always be the case though, so automatic subtitling can help generate the script quickly. Note, that I used the word “subtitles” and not “captions”. That is because in most cases, scripts and auto-generated “captions” only capture the speech and you should still add any additional notes, such as speakers and non-speech information. In addition, if you use automatic captioning, make sure to check the accuracy of the content and fix any mistakes as they often include misheard words and irregular punctuation.

Final notes

Note that while it’s best practice to use captioning whenever possible, video content that is used in addition to text and two-way conferencing are exempt from these guidelines. Also note that there are some additional AAA guidelines that also recommend providing captions or an alternative for live audio-only content such as podcasts and providing sign-language interpretations for pre-recorded video content. But we’ll cover these in spotlight 9.

For now, here's a summary of all the criteria covered in the time-based media section: 

Resources:

• Meryl Evans provides a lot of content about captions. Follow this link to check out her 10 rules of good captioning accompanied with short example videos: 10 rules of good captioning (Meryl Evans)

• For more content from Meryl, check out the 6 most common captioning mistakes with examples: Common caption mistakes (Meryl Evans)

• This article lists 10 free  transcribing and video captioning tools: 10 free transcribing and captioning tools (Amara)

• If you’re using YouTube, follow this link to find out more about the captioning options and processes: Captioning in YouTube (YouTube help)

• If you’re creating captions in Storyline, this page explains the process: Captioning in Storyline 360 (Articulate) 

• If you’re using Camtasia, follow this link to learn about how to add captions manually and automatically (Note that automatic captioning is only available in the Windows version): Captioning in Camtasia (Techsmith)

• If you’re using Zoom for live workshops etc.,  this article details how you can enable automatic captioning: Captioning in Zoom (Zoom)

• If you’re using Google Meet  for live workshops etc., this article details how you can enable automatic captioning (Note that captions are not captured in recordings): Captioning in Google Meet (Google)

• If you need to create subtitle files to manually add to videos, this article explains the different subtitle file formats: Caption format acronyms explained (3playmedia.com)

Discussion questions:

Get Involved: Come to the LCA Spotlight LinkedIn group and join the conversation.

• What’s your preferred method of creating captions, creating them manually, or using a transcribing or automatic captioning tool?

• What’s your preferred tool for adding and editing captions and creating live captions?

• What limitations should we consider when adding captions either to prerecorded or live video content

• What features are available in your authoring tool to facilitate using captions?

When you post in the community, use the hashtag #LCASpotlightCaptions