Over the past few years, we’ve seen an increasing number of videos include captions or subtitles. No longer reserved solely for high-budget film and television content, captions can be found scrolling through your Facebook newsfeed or YouTube watchlist. There are many reasons for including captions. Read on to see why this has become an integral best practice!
Accessibility
Accessibility is the top reason to caption videos. According to the World Health Organization, there are currently around 466 million people worldwide with some level of hearing loss. This number is projected to reach over 900 million by 2050. This means that by not providing captions, a huge proportion of the viewing public are unable to fully comprehend the information in videos.
In many countries, it’s a legal requirement for federal and educational entities to provide captions for video content. But what about for everyone else? While it may not be entirely illegal to not provide captions, it is certainly frowned upon. The need for captions is outlined under Success Criterion 1.2.2 of the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG): “Captions are provided for all pre-recorded audio content in synchronized media, except when the media is a media alternative for text and is clearly labeled as such.” In other words, it’s universally expected that captions are readily available.
Outreach
In 2019, a tweet went viral when Twitter user @deafgirly posted, “Subtitles aren't just for deaf people. Lots of my hearing friends use them, too. If you're hearing and find yourself using subtitles on Netflix and TV and would quite like them at the cinema, please retweet to help normalise their presence! Big thanks #DeafAwarenessWeek.” To date, this post has close to 78k likes and 73k retweets.
As shown by the response to this tweet, it’s well documented that people outside the d/Deaf and hard of hearing communities* use and appreciate the presence of captions. The majority of videos on facebook are watched without sound. If a video has poor audio quality, people look for the option to turn on captions. If a speaker has a strong accent, captions can help clarify what’s being said. Non-native speakers often have an easier time comprehending another language when they are able to read along with listening. Studies also show that reading helps viewers retain information.
Plus, it’s just good customer service! Making your content accessible without anyone asking for it puts you one step ahead of the competition.
*A note on the phrase “d/Deaf and/or hard of hearing”
While often used interchangeably, there is a difference between the terms “Deaf,” “deaf,” and “hard of hearing.”
“Deaf” with an uppercase ‘D’ refers to a people who identify with Deaf culture and view it as a part of their identity. Often, people who are Deaf prefer communicating in sign language.
When spelled with a lowercase “d,” “deaf” refers to the audiological condition of not hearing. People who refer to themselves as deaf often don’t have as strong of a connection to the overall Deaf community and prefer communicating orally rather than signing.
“Hard of hearing” refers to those anywhere along the spectrum of mild to moderate hearing loss. People who are hard of hearing may also embrace Deaf culture or they may not.
The term “hearing impaired” is not widely accepted by the Deaf community, as it implies that their deafness is an impairment, as opposed to an identity marker to be celebrated.
SEO Impact
Search engines might know a lot, but one thing they can’t do is “read” or “index” a video or audio file. They can, however, read a caption file! Attaching a closed caption file to a video will increase searchability by allowing search engines to index the keywords in the video itself, rather than just what’s listed in the video title or description.
Search engines will only index captions when the file is uploaded or edited by a user. If a platform auto generates captions (like YouTube) and they are not then user edited, they will not be indexed in the same way, as platforms know that AI generated captions are often too inaccurate.
It’s important to know that SEO optimization from captions does not apply to open captions (i.e captions that are burned into the video and cannot be turned off), just closed captions, which are uploaded as a separate file. This is because when the captions are hard-coded in as OC, the text is considered part of the image rather than viewed as a readable text file. If you really want to include open captions in your video but still want to increase your search ranking, consider adding a link to an external transcript -- the best of both worlds!
Translation
Of course, another reason to caption/subtitle your videos is to provide access to people who speak a different language. To read more about this, click here: Subtitle Translation & Video Dubbing
Captioning & COVID-19
The global Coronavirus pandemic has only emphasized the importance of video accessibility. With more and more people staying at home and working from home, video captioning has only become more valuable. Read more, here: Importance of Captioning during a Global Pandemic