Techniques/General/Caption Updates

Status

• Proposed updates to techniques.
• Action item for updating Caption related techniques
• Meeting minutes for reference

Applicability

Synchronized multimedia with captions.

WCAG references

• G87: Providing closed captions (sufficient)
• G93: Providing open (always visible) captions (sufficient)
• G9: Creating captions for live synchronized media (sufficient)
• F8: Failure of Success Criterion 1.2.2 due to captions omitting some dialogue or important sound effects (failure)
• SM11: Providing captions through synchronized text streams in SMIL 1.0 (sufficient)
• SM12: Providing captions through synchronized text streams in SMIL 2.0 (sufficient)
• FLASH9: Applying captions to prerecorded synchronized media (sufficient)

• SC 1.2.2 Captions (Prerecorded) (Level A)
• 1.2.4 Captions (Live) (Level AA)

Related Techniques

@@ Propose adding F8 as a Related Technique to G87: Providing closed captions and G93: Providing open (always visible) captions

• F8: Failure of Success Criterion 1.2.2 due to captions omitting some dialogue or important sound effects (failure)

Tests

@@ Propose updating the final step in the Test Procedure for G87 and G93 as follows below. Earlier steps are not changed, but are provided for context. Bruce thinks that this phrasing approach means that the quality expectations between live and prerecorded media don't need to be called out.

G87 Procedure

1. Turn on the closed caption feature of the media player
2. View the synchronized media content
3. Check that captions are visible and verify that:
   • Captions are synchronized with the audio
   • Dialogue and important sounds are accurately captioned
   • Where possible, captions do not obscure or obstruct relevant information in the video, including faces

G93 Procedure

1. Watch the synchronized media with closed captioning turned off.
2. Check that captions are visible and verify that:
   • Captions are synchronized with the audio
   • Dialogue and important sounds are accurately captioned
   • Where possible, captions do not obscure or obstruct relevant information in the video, including faces

@@ SM11, SM12, and FLASH9 are all technology-specific techniques for displaying closed captions.

Marc 19 Aug: While testing for caption accuracy probably shouldn't apply to these techniques, I think it's applicable to test that the technique will not obscure important information.

Bruce 2 Sept: Agree we can assume good quality. Note that Flash9 already had step for checking quality, so this helps with consistency among the three. Do we need them even more consistent?

Propose updating the final step in the Test Procedure for SM11, SM12, and FLASH9 with the following:

SM11 and SM12 Procedure

1. Enabled caption preference in player, if present
2. Play file with captions
3. Check that captions are displayed and verify that:
   • Captions are synchronized with the audio
   • Captions do not obscure or obstruct relevant information in the video, including faces

FLASH9 Procedure

Watch all video content displayed by your Flash movie. Ensure that:

1. Captions are available for all audio content, either turned on by default or as a user preference.
2. Captions are synchronized with the audio and do not obscure or obstruct relevant information in the video, including faces