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People who are Deaf or hard of hearing rely on captions, transcripts, and text to follow video, audio, and anything a site says out loud. So does anyone watching on mute in a quiet office or on a loud train. When the words only exist as sound, they're gone.

Captions put speech and important sounds on screen, in time with the video. Transcripts put the same words on the page as text. For video, a descriptive transcript also covers what's on screen, so people who are DeafBlind can follow along on a braille display. Transcripts help anyone who'd rather read than watch, too.

For many people who are Deaf, a sign language like ASL is their main language, not English, so plain written language helps too. And sites "talk" in ways that are easy to miss: a phone-only support line, a call to verify an account, a video meeting with no captions.

Common tools

Captions
Closed captions viewers turn on, or open captions burned into the video.
Transcripts
The full text of audio or video, on the page.
Live captions
Built into recent iPhones, many Android phones, Windows 11, and desktop Chrome. Automatic, so names and terms often come out wrong.
Relay services
Text, video, and captioned phone relay for phone calls.
Hearing aids and cochlear implants
Many stream audio straight from a phone or computer.

Most of these are small changes in the code. Where WCAG covers one, we link the success criteria it falls under.

  1. Video with no captions, or captions nobody checked

    Product demos, how-to videos, and social clips often have no captions at all. Auto-generated captions beat nothing, but they get names, numbers, and technical terms wrong, and they rarely say who's speaking or note important sounds.

    The fix

    Caption every video with speech in it. Start from auto-captions if you like, then edit them for accuracy, name speakers when it isn't obvious who's talking, and include sounds that matter, like [alarm beeping].

    Example
    <video controls>
  <source src="demo.mp4" type="video/mp4">
  <track kind="captions" src="demo.en.vtt"
    srclang="en" label="English">
</video>

  2. Live events with no captions

    Webinars and livestreams happen in real time, and automatic captions can lag or garble them. Someone who can't hear the speaker either follows along with bad captions or doesn't attend.

    The fix

    Turn on your platform's live captions as a starting point. For anything that matters, book a human captioner through a CART service (Communication Access Realtime Translation), since automatic captions alone usually won't meet the standard. Post the recording afterward with edited captions.

  3. Audio with no transcript

    Podcasts, audio clips, and recorded calls have no picture to caption. Without a transcript, they're off limits entirely, including to people who are DeafBlind and would read one with a braille display.

    The fix

    Post a transcript on the same page as the audio, or link to it right beside the player. Include who's speaking and any sounds that matter.

  4. Captions that are hard to read

    Captions in a small font, with nothing behind them, or sitting on top of text that's already on screen. Some custom video players ignore the caption settings people chose on their device, so there's no way to make the text bigger.

    The fix

    Use a video player that handles captions properly and respects system caption settings. Give captions a solid or semi-transparent background, and move them when they'd cover important on-screen text.

  5. Support and verification that need a phone call

    "Call us to finish setting up your account." A support page with only a phone number. A security check that calls you and reads a code out loud. Each one shuts out someone who can't hear the call, or forces them through a relay service.

    W3C: Auditory barriers

    The fix

    Offer another way for anything that happens by phone: chat, email, or a text message. Relay services work, but they're slower, and nobody should need one to reset a password.

    WCAG doesn't name this one, but it stops real people all the same.

You don't need any special tools. Just turn the sound off.

  • Watch

    Play your videos on mute. Can you follow everything, including who's speaking and any sounds that matter?

  • Check

    Read the captions while you listen. Are names, numbers, and terms right? Auto-captions miss more than you'd think.

  • Look

    Find every place your site plays audio or asks someone to call. Is there a text option for each?

We're collecting stories from people who use assistive tech every day. Yours can help the people who build websites and apps see what gets in the way.

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To know the road ahead, ask those coming back. We test with the same tools your users do.

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