How to make video and audio accessible

Captions for video

All videos need captions so people who cannot hear the audio can still understand it.

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Why video captions are needed

Captions provide a text alternative to spoken dialogue. They can also include non-dialogue information needed to understand the content, like speaker identification, sound effects, music and laughter.

They help people who:

  • are deaf or hard of hearing
  • are in noisy environments or want sound off in quiet places
  • find reading the text helpful or easier than listening to audio
  • need a screen reader to read text (closed captions only)

Pre-recorded videos with important audio information must have captions to be accessible. 

Live video is exempt from having captions under accessibility regulations, but we strongly encourage adding them where possible.

If a live stream is recorded and stored for later access, it's then considered pre-recorded and not exempt.  

Types of captions

There are two types of captions:

  • Closed captions can be turned on or off by a user and are part of most media players.
  • Open captions are 'burned-in' to a video and cannot be turned off by a user.

Closed captions

Closed captions are added to your video after it's been created. They are better for accessibility because they can be:

  • read by screen readers and search engines  
  • adjusted by a user for how they appear
  • turned on or off by users depending on preference

You should use closed captions where possible.

Open captions

Open captions are built into your video when it's being created and are always on screen. They are not as good as closed captions because they cannot be:

  • read by screen readers or search engines
  • adjusted for how they appear 
  • turned off for those who find them distracting

Open captions should still be used on platforms that do not support closed captioning, like some social media channels. 

You must make sure open captions:

  • have good colour contrast so people can read them
  • do not block important visual information in the video 

When captions are needed

Pre-recorded video

Add accurate captions to all pre-recorded videos with important or informative audio. This includes any: 

  • speech
  • sounds that give video content important meaning, like laughter
  • sounds indicating something happening off-screen

Aim to complete this within 14 days from the date of publication. 

You do not need captions if the video is silent or only has background audio.

If your video does not need captions, add text close to where it's embedded on a webpage explaining why. For example, 'No captions needed. Video has no spoken audio'.

Videos with no audio, but with important messaging like visible text are unlikely to be accessible unless they are given either an:

Live video streams

Live video streams are exempt from having captions under accessibility regulations, but providing them is strongly recommended.

Streaming services, like our YouTube channel, allow you to add live auto-generated captioning to your stream during setup. 

YouTube's auto-captions must be enabled for each stream. They are not retained after the live stream end, but any recordings will generate their own auto-captions.

What to include in captions

The main purpose of captions is to provide the same information you hear to people who cannot hear the audio.  

Captions should:

  • include all important speech
  • include important non-speech sounds in [square brackets]
  • have accurate spelling and punctuation
  • be visible for at least one second
  • appear roughly at the same time as the audio

They must also indicate a change of speaker if either the:

  • identity of the speaker impacts the meaning of the audio
  • visuals don't show who's speaking, like an interviewer asking a question off camera

Auto-generated captions

Some hosting sites, like YouTube, can generate captions for videos automatically using voice recognition software.

Auto-generated captions are not considered full captions, but they can be a good starting point.

Plan time to check and edit auto-generated captions to make them complete. 

Creating a YouTube video with captions

If you work for the council, you can create a video with captions for our YouTube channel using the following steps:

  1. Create a written script with a visual description of what's happening on screen and use this to narrate the video.
  2. Request the video with audio description be uploaded to our YouTube channel.
  3. Request a text transcript of the automatic captions generated from the audio description (with time stamps included).
  4. Check the auto-captions are accurate and fix any errors.
  5. Add additional information if needed before any captions, like change of speaker or location in [square brackets].
  6. Add important non-spoken sounds using [square brackets], like [laughter] or [intro music].
  7. Send the corrected caption file (with timestamps included) back to us so we can update the video captions.

Contact us about adding captions to your video

Captions, subtitles and transcripts

Captions are not the same as subtitles or video transcripts. 

Subtitles are used for language translation and do not typically include non-speech elements. They are provided using the same method as captions. For example, a British Sign Language video that has English subtitles added as closed captions so everyone can understand it. 

Video transcripts are a text version of important speech and non-speech sounds. They can include descriptions of visual information needed to understand the content. Video transcripts are usually separate from the video and do not require people to interact with the video or video player. 

Learn about when video transcripts are needed

Related resources

More on captions

Web Content Accessibility Guidelines

This guidance may address the following: