Video caption accessibility checklist
Around one in eight people in the United States aged 12 and over has hearing loss in both ears, and millions more watch with the sound off. Captions are how all of them follow your video. Schools, governments and many businesses in the US and Canada are also expected to caption their videos under accessibility rules. This checklist explains what good captions look like in plain English, so you can get them right whether you are a creator, a teacher or a small business. It is general guidance, not legal advice.
The rules in one paragraph
The Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) are the international standard most laws point to. At level AA, which is the usual target, WCAG asks for captions on prerecorded and live video with sound, and an audio description or a full text alternative for important visual information. In the US, the ADA and Section 508 are the main laws, and courts and the Department of Justice look to WCAG for websites and online video. In Canada, federal bodies follow the Accessible Canada Act, and Ontario's AODA requires many organizations to meet WCAG 2.0 AA online. If you run a public sector, education or larger business site, talk to someone who knows your specific rules.
1. Accurate words
- Captions match what is said, not a summary of it.
- Names, brand names, technical terms and numbers are spelled correctly.
- Punctuation and capital letters make the meaning clear.
- AI captions are reviewed by a person before publishing. Automatic captions alone usually miss the bar for accuracy.
2. Good timing
- Each caption appears when the words are spoken and leaves when they end.
- A caption stays up at least about one second, long enough to read.
- Reading speed stays comfortable: roughly 15 to 20 characters per second for adults, slower for young children.
- Captions do not run across a hard scene change when you can avoid it.
3. Sounds and speakers
- Important non-speech sounds are in square brackets: [door slams], [laughter], [upbeat music].
- Music with lyrics that matter is captioned, with a music note symbol if you like.
- When more than one person speaks, it is clear who is talking: a name label, a dash at a speaker change, or captions placed near the speaker.
- Off-screen voices are labeled, for example [Narrator] or [On phone].
4. Readable on screen
- One or two lines at a time, about 32 to 42 characters per line.
- Strong contrast: white or yellow text with a dark outline, shadow or box behind it.
- A plain, clear font at a size people can read on a phone.
- Captions do not cover faces, on-screen text or important parts of the picture. Move them to the top when something important sits at the bottom.
- Animated, word-by-word captions are fine for social video, but keep the motion gentle and avoid flashing, which can trigger seizures for some viewers.
5. Closed captions where people expect them
On YouTube, Vimeo, course platforms and your own site, offer captions as a separate file (SRT or VTT) that viewers can turn on and off and resize. Burned-in captions are great for social feeds, but they cannot be resized or switched off, and screen readers cannot read them. The ideal setup for an important video is both: burned-in captions on the social cut, a caption file on the full version. See how to add closed captions to YouTube.
6. A transcript for longer content
Podcasts, audio-only episodes and webinars should have a text transcript too. Deafblind users read transcripts with braille displays, and many people simply prefer to skim. Put the transcript on the same page as the video or link to it right below. A free tool like Voice note to text gives you a starting draft in minutes.
7. Live video
Live streams and live meetings need live captions to meet WCAG AA. Zoom, Teams and YouTube Live all offer automatic live captions you can switch on. For events where accuracy really matters, such as a public meeting or a graduation, a human captioner (CART) is still the gold standard. After the event, replace the live captions with corrected ones on the recording.
A five-minute review routine
- Generate captions with AI.
- Watch the whole video once with the sound on, reading along. Fix every wrong word.
- Watch the first minute with the sound off. Could you follow it? Add sound labels where you could not.
- Check that no caption hides a face or on-screen text.
- Export SRT or VTT for the full video and an MP4 with burned-in captions for social media.
Free tools for this
- Free closed caption generator
- Captions for LinkedIn videos
- Lecture to text, free
- Transcribe a Zoom recording
More guides
- English and French subtitles for Canadian videos
How to publish a video in Canada with both English and French subtitles: make both SRT files free, upload them to YouTube, Vimeo or your site, and style burned-in captions for social media.
- How to add Urdu captions to Reels, Shorts and TikTok
A step by step guide to Urdu captions for Reels, Shorts and TikTok: Urdu script or Roman Urdu, Nastaliq fonts, line length, timing, placement and how to fix mistakes.
- YouTube reused content policy, explained simply
What YouTube means by reused and inauthentic content, which kinds of Shorts and compilations get rejected from the Partner Program, and how to add enough of your own value to stay monetized.
- Safe zones for Reels, Shorts and TikTok
Where to place captions, titles and logos on a 1080x1920 vertical video so Instagram Reels, YouTube Shorts and TikTok buttons do not cover them. With pixel guides and a quick test.