Audio & video
A Video Has No Captions
People who are deaf or hard of hearing can't follow what is said in the video, so they miss the message entirely.
video-captionWCAG 2.0Introduced in WCAG 2.0.Level AA — the minimum. Missing it blocks people outright.
- Status
- CriticalCritical — Someone can complete the task only with great difficulty or outside help.CurrentScanners run this rule today.
- Owner
- DevContentTestProduct
- Audit
- Automated+ManualA scanner finds it; a person confirms the fix.
Why it matters
Captions are the words of the soundtrack shown on screen, in time with the video. They include speech, who is speaking, and important sounds like a doorbell or music.
Without them, deaf and hard of hearing people get only the pictures. Many others rely on captions too — people in noisy places, people who mute their phone, and people still learning English.
Who it affects
| Who | What they experience | Impact |
|---|---|---|
| Deaf and hard of hearing | They see people talking but get none of the words or important sounds. | High impact |
| Cognitive and neurodivergent users | Without text to read along, spoken content is harder to follow and remember. | Partial impact |
Business & product impact
| Area | Why | Impact |
|---|---|---|
| Legal | Captions for recorded video are required at WCAG 2.2 Level A, the minimum. Missing captions are a common basis for complaints under Australia's Disability Discrimination Act, and EN 301 549 requires them too. | High impact |
| Conversion | Most social and mobile viewers watch with sound off. Uncaptioned product or sign-up videos lose them. | Moderate impact |
| SEO | Search engines don't read the `<track>` caption file directly. A text transcript on the page helps more. | Low impact |
| Brand trust | Missing captions are obvious to deaf viewers and are often called out in public. | Moderate impact |
| Cost to fix | Captioning each video costs time or money. Building it into publishing is far cheaper than fixing a whole library later. | Moderate impact |
Fixing it in code
Add a caption track to the video
Don't
<video controls src="intro.mp4"></video>A screen reader says: “No captions available — the CC button is missing or does nothing.”
Do
<video controls src="intro.mp4">
<track kind="captions" src="intro.en.vtt" srclang="en" label="English" default>
</video>A screen reader says: “Captions appear on screen, in time with the speech.”
A <track> with kind="captions" gives the player text to show in sync.
Fixing it in design and content
Write captions that cover all the sound
Don't
An auto-generated file with wrong words, no speaker names and no sound effects.
Do
A checked file with accurate words, speaker names when it's unclear who is talking, and sounds like [phone rings] or [upbeat music].
Captions must carry everything the sound tells a hearing viewer, not just roughly the speech.
Designer's handoff note
Make sure the video player shows a clear CC button that works by keyboard.
Leave room at the bottom of the video so captions don't cover key text or faces.
Quick test
Tool
Your browser, with sound muted
Checklist
- Pass
- Accurate captions appear, in time, with speakers and important sounds.
- Fail
- There is no CC option, or the captions are missing, wrong or out of sync.
What a green scan still misses
A scanner checks that a caption track exists. It can't tell if the captions are accurate, complete, in sync, or even in the right language.
Reference
- Rule ID
video-caption- Raised by
- axe-core: “<video> elements must have captions”
- WCAG
- 1.2.2 Captions (Prerecorded) (opens in a new tab) · Level A · since WCAG 2.0
- Other standards
- EN 301 549 9.1.2.2 · RGAA 4.3.1
- Last reviewed
- 14 October 2026