What are Captions and Subtitles?
The terms ‘caption’ and ‘subtitle’ have similar definitions and may be used by different organisations to mean slightly different things. Usually, captions refer to on-screen text specifically designed for deaf viewers and include descriptions of sounds and music. Subtitles are straight transcriptions or translations of dialogue.
Closed captions / subtitles – these need to be switched on or off, look for the CC symbol.
Open captions – these are always on view
Live captions – generated in real time when switched on, these can be inaccurate
Who can help?
Turn On The Subtitles (TOTS) is an initiative to encourage using subtitles to improve literacy. Their website https://www.turnonthesubtitles.org/news/ has some useful information, including:
- how to access subtitles on the BBC (including BBC iPlayer), ITV, Channel 4 etc https://www.turnonthesubtitles.org/parents/
- service providers such as Disney+, Freeview etc https://www.turnonthesubtitles.org/how-to-turn-on-the-subtitles/
- as well as interesting research on the benefits of subtitles https://www.turnonthesubtitles.org/research/
Visit the website of CALL Scotland for guidance on how to add live captions to Google Chrome https://www.callscotland.org.uk/blog/live-captioning-in-google-chrome/
The Royal National Institute for the Deaf (RNID) have reviewed live caption speech to text apps for smartphones and tablets https://rnid.org.uk/information-and-support/technology-and-products/speech-to-text-smartphone-apps/
For information on accessing live captioning using Windows 11 https://support.microsoft.com/en-gb/windows/use-live-captions-to-better-understand-audio-b52da59c-14b8-4031-aeeb-f6a47e6055df
For those who use live captions when gaming here are some articles that might be interesting and useful:
- David Watkins has very kindly given permission for his article Accessible Gaming first published by British Association of Teachers of the Deaf (BATOD), to be available on our website Accessible Gaming – by David Watkins
- National Deaf Children’s Society (NDCS) has NJ, a successful gamer, explaining some of his tips for accessible gaming https://www.ndcs.org.uk/information-and-support/parenting-and-family-life/families-magazine/your-stories/stories-of-deaf-young-people/njs-a-game-changer/
- From the AVA organisation website https://www.ava.me/blog/game-on-for-deaf-accessibility
