accessibility-guidelines

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Captions for pre-recorded videos

On this page:

• Summary
• Requirements
• More info

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Summary

Provide captions for videos that are pre-recorded.

Pre-recorded video content (like instructional videos, ads or interviews) must have captions that are synchronised with the audio content of the video.

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Requirements

• All pre-recorded video content has captions that are synchronised with the audio content of the video;
• Captions include all the spoken dialogue and important sound effects from the audio part of the video.

Common mistakes

• The video does not have synchronised captions;
• The video has captions but they do not include all the spoken dialogue and important sound effects from the audio content of the video;
• The video has captions but they are not synchronised with the audio content of the video.

Why?

This ensures that the information communicated by the audio part of the video is available to people who can’t hear it.

Official wording in the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines

1.2.2 Captions (Prerecorded): Captions are provided for all prerecorded audio content in synchronized media, except when the media is a media alternative for text and is clearly labeled as such. (Level A)

See the W3C’s detailed explanation of this guideline with techniques and examples.

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More info

Sources

• W3C Web Content Accessibility Guidelines 2.1
• Government Digital Service WCAG 2.1 Primer

Useful resources

• What are captions? on the Nomensa blog
• Sounding out the web: accessibility for Deaf and hard of hearing people (Part 2) by The Paciello Group

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