Accessibility isn't only for big companies with legal teams. Every creator who adds good captions makes the internet a little more usable for people who are deaf or hard of hearing, people with auditory processing differences, and the huge number of viewers watching in a second language.
The good news: accessible captions are also better captions for everyone.
Accuracy comes first
Automatic speech recognition is impressive, but it isn't perfect. Always skim your captions before publishing. Pay special attention to names, numbers, technical terms and words that sound alike. A caption that says the wrong thing is worse than no caption at all.
Keep captions in sync
Captions should appear when the words are spoken and disappear soon after. Word-level timing from modern transcription keeps text closely aligned with speech. If you edit a line heavily, check it still matches what's being said at that moment.
Make them easy to read
- Use high contrast: light text with a dark outline or box, or dark text on a bright box.
- Choose clear, solid fonts over thin or decorative ones.
- Keep lines short — two lines at most on screen at once.
- Avoid placing captions over faces, important on-screen text or the platform's buttons.
- Use animation to support reading, not distract from it.
Include meaningful sounds
If a sound matters to the story — a doorbell, laughter, music starting, a dramatic pause — add it in brackets, like [phone rings] or [upbeat music]. You can type these directly into the transcript editor before rendering.
Offer closed captions where you can
Burned-in captions are great for social feeds, but on platforms with a subtitle menu, uploading an SRT or VTT file lets viewers choose their preferred size and style in their player settings. Offering both covers the widest range of needs.
Accessibility is a habit
You don't need to be perfect on day one. Start by captioning every new video, check the text for accuracy, and pick a readable style. Those three habits alone put you ahead of most of the internet.