When going through the process of captioning videos, whether done in-house or through a third-party vendor, it is important to consider the quality standards of captioning. There are several resources that identify industry standards on captioning media such as:
- Federal Communications Commission (FCC) standards for captions
- Described and Captioned Media Program (DCMP) Captioning Key
- Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) success criteria for pre recorded captioning
NDC’s Why Captions Provide Equal Access resource highlights the four pillars of the FCC’s standards that captions must be:
- accurate
- synchronous
- complete
- properly placed
The FCC’s 2014 final ruling on captioning quality (p. 21-22) goes in depth on the quality standards of captioning on television programming. Both the FCC final ruling and WCAG success criteria reference the DCMP Captioning Key guidelines for creating quality captions. Additionally, the Office for Civil Rights (OCR) will generally use the WCAG success criteria standards as a benchmark tool when conducting investigations for web content accessibility including videos and other media.
Additional Resources:
- If auto-captions are available on a video, does it need to be re-captioned to quality standards?
- Equitable Access Guide: Section 8: Online Accessibility
- The Significance of Harvard’s Settlement on Video Accessibility
- Auto Captions and Deaf Students: Why Automatic Speech Recognition Technology Is Not the Answer (Yet)
