WebAIM - Web Accessibility In Mind

E-mail List Archives

Re: Using closed captioning versus open

for

From: Paul Bohman
Date: Aug 25, 2001 2:49PM

Both of you have brought up excellent points. I would have to agree that it
is better to provide captions in a way that the people who really need them
don't have to work to hard to see them. I don't know if there are any real
advantages to having the captions off by default, other than the idea that
most people aren't used to seeing them. Despite some potential usability
problems, closed captioning is very acceptable. Television has a history of
being closed captioned, rather than open captioned. Still, some people won't
realize that captions are even available if they have the "display captions"
setting turned off.
One way around this would be to provide a text sentence prior to the link to
the video which says "Closed captioned: follow this link for instructions on
accessing the captions." Something like that.
The choice is left to the web designer. I have no problem with closed
captioning, but you should consider your audience, the purpose of the video
and so on before deciding on closed versus open captioning.
Paul Bohman
Technology Coordinator
WebAIM (Web Accessibility in Mind)
www.webaim.org
Utah State University
www.usu.edu