If you create videos for your business, you have probably seen the words subtitles, captions, and transcripts, often times used interchangeably. Even the biggest video platform, YouTube, groups subtitle and caption files together, so if you’re confused, it’s understandable.
But these three features have different jobs.
Only two of the three are specifically meant to make video and audio content more accessible.
So, let’s break down what each feature does and how to figure out which ones your video needs.
In This Article
A Simple Way to Remember the Difference
Which Video Accessibility Features Does WCAG Require?
Are Auto-Generated Captions and Transcripts Accessible?
Which Should You Add to Your Videos?
What Are Subtitles?
Subtitles are synchronized text displayed with a video. Their primary purpose is translation.
If your video is recorded in English and you want to make it available to a Spanish-speaking audience, you might add Spanish subtitles so someone who can hear the audio but does not understand the spoken language can follow along. In some platforms this is called dubbing.
Since they focus on translating the dialogue, they usually do not include things such as speaker identification, music cues, laughter, or meaningful background sounds because the assumption is that the viewer can already hear those parts of the video.
If your goal is to reach people who speak another language, use subtitles.
What Are Closed Captions?
Closed captions are also text synchronized with a video’s audio. But captions do more than display the spoken words. They communicate the meaningful audio information someone needs to understand what is happening without being able to hear it.
That might include
Speaker identification
Meaningful sound effects
Music that contributes to the content
Laughter
Other important background sounds
For example, instead of a caption only being
Welcome back to the channel.
It might read
[Upbeat music]
Sarah: “Welcome back to the channel.”
That additional information gives someone access to more of what is happening in the audio.
Why Are They Called Closed Captions?
The word closed simply means the viewer can turn the captions on or off. They give a user more control over what they see.
Open captions work differently. They are permanently displayed as part of the video, sometimes called “burned-in” captions, and the viewer cannot turn them off. These are most often found in shorts and social media clips.
Who Uses Closed Captions?
Captions are essential for people who are Deaf or hard of hearing, but plenty of other people use them too.
Think about someone watching a video on mute in a waiting room. Someone sitting in a noisy coffee shop. Or someone who processes information more easily when they can read and listen at the same time.
Those are useful additional benefits for closed captions.
The core purpose is making the audio information available to someone who cannot hear it, but everyone can benefit from captions.
What Is a Video Transcript?
A transcript takes the content out of the video player and puts it into a format someone can read separately. It might appear directly below the video, inside an expandable section, or on a separate transcript page. Someone can read it without ever pressing play. That makes transcripts useful for people who want to skim the content, search for a specific section, revisit something later, or simply read instead of watch.
A basic transcript includes the spoken content along with meaningful non-speech audio information.
A descriptive transcript goes further by including important visual information too.
Imagine a tutorial where the speaker says
“Choose this option next.”
If the only way to know what “this option” means is to see where the person is pointing on screen, someone reading the transcript is still missing information.
A descriptive transcript might instead include
Sarah selects “Page Settings” from the menu.]
Now the visual information is available in text too.
Transcripts can also be handy for your business.
A good transcript gives you written content that can be searched, quoted, referenced, or repurposed into blog posts, emails, social content, and other resources.
Accessible Video Production Guide
Does your video need captions, subtitles, a transcript, audio descriptions...or all of them?
Our Accessible Video Guide breaks down the pieces of an accessible video and helps you figure out what your content needs without getting buried in technical terminology.
A Simple Way to Remember the Difference
All of these features turn some form of video information into text, but they are designed for different purposes.
Subtitles appear with the video and are timed to the spoken audio. They are usually used to translate dialogue into another language for someone who can hear the video but does not understand the language being spoken.
Closed captions also appear with the video and are synchronized with the audio. But they include more than dialogue. They provide meaningful sound information, speaker identification, and other audio details someone needs when they cannot rely on hearing the video.
Transcripts live outside the video player. They provide a separate readable version of the content and may include both meaningful audio information and important visual details.
A simple way to remember it
Subtitles = translation.
Captions = access to audio.
Transcripts = a readable version of the video.
There are exceptions in how different platforms and regions use each term, but those definitions give you a reliable starting point when deciding what your content needs.
Which Video Accessibility Features Does WCAG Require?
Deciding what your video needs to make it accessible depends on the type of media you are creating.
For a typical prerecorded video with meaningful audio, accurate captions are required at WCAG Level A.
For live video with audio, captions are required at Level AA.
For prerecorded audio-only content, such as a podcast, a text alternative such as a transcript is required at Level A.
Transcripts for prerecorded video with audio are a little more nuanced. At Level A, WCAG 1.2.3 requires either an audio description or an alternative for time-based media that communicates the important visual content. A descriptive transcript can serve as that alternative.
We aren’t going into audio descriptions in this post, and they are more difficult to produce. So, you should consider including a transcript for pre-recorded videos as a requirement.
And subtitles?
Translated subtitles are valuable when you serve people who speak different languages, but they do not replace captions for someone who cannot hear the video and they are not a requirement to achieve WCAG compliance.
Are Auto-Generated Captions and Transcripts Accessible?
Auto-generation can save you a lot of time.
Just don’t assume that auto generated captions or transcripts are totally accurate.
Automatic tools regularly get names, industry terminology, punctuation, speaker changes, and sound cues wrong. Sometimes one small mistake can completely change the meaning of a sentence. So, automatically generated captions can absolutely be used as a starting point, but they need to be reviewed and edited for accuracy.
We recommend checking
Spelling and punctuation
Names and business terminology
Speaker identification when needed
Meaningful sound cues
Caption timing
Any important information the automated tool missed
Review an automatically generated transcript too. It should read like actual written content, not one giant block of text. Break it into manageable paragraphs, identify speakers when necessary, use headings for longer content, and add important visual information if you are creating a descriptive transcript.
Auto generated captions and transcripts are NOT automatically accessible. It is up to you to check it and edit it if necessary to make it accessible.
Which Should You Add to Your Videos?
You do not need to add every available feature to every piece of content just because it exists. Start with what your specific video or audio track needs.
If you publish a typical prerecorded business video with spoken or other meaningful audio, start with accurate captions and a transcript.
If you want to reach people who speak another language, add translated subtitles.
If you publish podcasts or other prerecorded audio-only content, provide a transcript.
For longer videos, tutorials, interviews, webinars, courses, and educational content, you should include captions, a transcript, and possibly audio descriptions.
Once you know which information your audience needs, choosing the right feature gets much easier.
We helps small businesses build websites that are accessible, clear, and easier for EVERYONE to use from the start. If you want a professional review of your site’s accessibility, we’d love to take a look.
Subtitles, Closed Captions, and Transcripts FAQs
Are subtitles and closed captions the same thing?
No. Subtitles translate spoken dialogue into another language for someone who can hear the audio. Captions provide access to dialogue and meaningful sounds for someone who cannot hear the audio. However, platforms and regions sometimes use the terms interchangeably.
Can a transcript replace closed captions?
No. Captions are synchronized with the video and allow someone to follow the visual content and audio information together. A transcript is separate from the video and provides a different experience, allowing someone to read the content presented in a video.
Are YouTube's automatic captions accessible?
They can be a useful starting point, but they should be reviewed before publishing. Check them for accuracy, punctuation, speaker identification, sound cues, and timing.
What is the difference between open and closed captions?
Closed captions can be turned on and off by the viewer. Open captions are permanently included in the video and cannot be disabled.
A beginner-friendly guide to captions, transcripts, subtitles, and audio description — so you always know which features your video needs, and how to create them without guesswork.
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What each feature does, and when you need it
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A plain-language standards reference
A pre-publish testing checklist
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