Techniques for WCAG 2.0

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G93: Providing open (always visible) captions

Applicability

Any synchronized media technology, even ones that do not support closed captions.

This technique relates to:

Description

The objective of this technique is to provide a way for people who are deaf or otherwise have trouble hearing the dialogue in audio visual material to be able to view the material. With this technique all of the dialogue and important sounds are embedded as text in the video track. As a result they are always visible and no special support for captioning is required by the user agent.

NOTE: Captions should not be confused with subtitles. Subtitles provide text of only the dialogue and do not include important sounds.

Examples

Resources

No resources available for this technique.

Tests

Procedure

  1. Watch the synchronized media with closed captioning turned off.

  2. Check that captions (of all dialogue and important sounds) are visible.

Expected Results

If this is a sufficient technique for a success criterion, failing this test procedure does not necessarily mean that the success criterion has not been satisfied in some other way, only that this technique has not been successfully implemented and can not be used to claim conformance.

Techniques are Informative

Techniques are informative—that means they are not required. The basis for determining conformance to WCAG 2.0 is the success criteria from the WCAG 2.0 standard—not the techniques. For important information about techniques, please see the Understanding Techniques for WCAG Success Criteria section of Understanding WCAG 2.0.