When you provide multimedia, you must include captions to make it accessible. Captions are visually and auditory content that are in sync with multimedia. It allows people who can’t hear to have access to the information. But next to hearing limitations, captions might also help people who have trouble understanding the language that is presented. This can be because the language is not their preferred language, or that they are in a noisy environment such as a restaurant which limits their ability to hear sound.
When creating captions for multimedia content it is important that:
- The captions are synchronized, which means they appear at approximately the same time as the audio presented.
- Correspond to the words spoken and display other audio information (such as a video of a ringing doorbell, the captions must provide that the doorbell rang).
- They are easily accessible to those who need it. A lot of video streaming services like YouTube or Vimeo provide an easy way for people to turn on close captions (CC).
