Ultimate Guide to Accessibility in 2024: The differences Between Closed Captions and Subtitles

What is Accessibility?​

​Accessibility involves the creation of products, devices, services, or environments that cater to individuals with disabilities or impairments. 

The objective is to ensure that people with diverse abilities can utilize the same resources as those without disabilities, free from barriers or restrictions.

Accessibility manifests in various forms, encompassing physical aspects like ramps, elevators, and designated parking spaces, as well as digital elements such as websites, software, and mobile applications designed to accommodate individuals with visual, auditory, cognitive, or motor impairments.

The overarching aim of accessibility is to foster equal opportunities, eradicate discrimination, and enable everyone to participate in society while actively enjoying equal rights and benefits. 

It constitutes a crucial component of inclusion and diversity, extending its benefits not only to individuals with disabilities but also to their families, friends, and communities.

Why does accessibility matter?

​Accessibility is crucial because it empowers individuals with disabilities or impairments to engage in society actively and ensures equal access to information, goods, and services. 

It involves the elimination of barriers or obstacles that might hinder people with disabilities from utilizing products, services, and information available to the broader population.

Diverse types of disabilities, encompassing visual, auditory, physical, and cognitive challenges, may affect individuals, sometimes in combination. Inaccessibility of a product, service, or information can result in the exclusion of people with disabilities, hindering their full participation in society.

Enhancing accessibility can be as straightforward as incorporating larger fonts, providing captions or transcripts for videos, or designing infrastructure with ramps and wider doorways. Alternatively, it may require more intricate measures, such as developing assistive technologies or offering sign language interpreters.

Ensuring accessibility constitutes a legal obligation in many countries and reflects a commitment to social responsibility and inclusivity. 

By prioritizing accessibility, we contribute to creating a more inclusive and equitable society, fostering active participation and contribution from everyone.

• Temporary disabilities can arise from injuries, like a bruised eye, or illnesses, including hearing loss due to a severe ear or sinus infection.
• Situational disabilities are influenced by a person's surroundings or circumstances, like difficulty seeing a screen in varying lighting conditions or struggling to hear audio in loud, crowded spaces.
• Episodic disabilities lack a discernible pattern and can impact an individual at any time, altering their interactions with the world. Examples include migraines, vertigo, chronic pain, asthma, and certain mental illnesses like PTSD and bipolar disorder.
• Dynamic disabilities, akin to episodic disabilities, typically lack a clear pattern and fluctuate in severity. Symptoms of a chronic illness may become more active or worsen for a specific duration, leading to varying levels of impact over time.
• Invisible/hidden disabilities are not immediately evident upon observation and can encompass a range of conditions, from hearing loss and chronic pain to neurological disorders or mental illnesses.

Unveiling the Basics: Closed Caption vs Subtitles 

What Is Closed Captioning?  

Closed captions represent the audio content within a media file, enhancing accessibility for the deaf and hard of hearing. 

They offer a time-to-text track either as a supplementary aid to the audio or as a substitute for it.

The text in a closed caption file primarily captures speech. Still, it also encompasses non-speech elements such as speaker IDs and crucial sound effects that contribute to comprehending the video's storyline.

On video players, closed captions are typically indicated by a CC icon, making it easy for users to identify and activate this feature. 

What are subtitles?

Subtitles were introduced in the 1930s, transitioning from silent films to "talkies" (films with spoken audio). They were implemented to cater to foreign audiences who did not understand the language in the films.

Subtitles offer a textual translation of a video's dialogue. Traditionally, they assume that the viewer can hear the audio but may not comprehend the language. An exception is made for subtitles designed for the D/deaf and hard of hearing, assuming the viewer cannot hear the audio or understand the language.

Subtitles come in various styles, often presented as white or yellow text outlined in black or with a black drop shadow. They may also adopt a similar appearance to captions. Placement varies, but subtitles are typically centered at the bottom of the screen for readability and ease of translation. 

In instances where graphics or text appear in the lower third of the video, subtitles are usually positioned just above them. Viewers may be able to customize subtitles depending on the platform where the media is being viewed.

Closed Caption vs Subtitles What Sets Them Apart?

​Closed captions and subtitles are pivotal in enhancing accessibility and addressing communication barriers. 

One significant improvement they offer is facilitating comprehension for individuals with hearing impairments, ensuring that everyone can access and understand audio-visual content regardless of their auditory abilities. 

This inclusivity not only caters to the needs of the deaf and hard of hearing but also extends its benefits to a broader audience, fostering a more inclusive and diverse viewing experience.

Moreover, closed captions and subtitles are invaluable tools for overcoming language barriers. In a globalized world where content is consumed across borders, these textual representations of dialogue enable audiences from different linguistic backgrounds to engage with media meaningfully. 

This linguistic inclusivity broadens content reach and promotes cultural exchange by enabling individuals to appreciate and understand diverse narratives.

Furthermore, the customization options with closed captions and subtitles contribute to a more personalized viewing experience. Viewers can adjust settings based on their preferences, such as font size and style, color, and positioning on the screen. 

This flexibility ensures that individuals with varying needs and preferences can tailor their viewing experience, offering solutions to the diverse challenges posed by different learning styles, visual impairments, or personal preferences. 

In essence, closed captions and subtitles not only improve accessibility but also address a spectrum of challenges, making media consumption more adaptable and enjoyable for a wide range of audiences.

Technological Advances: Enhancing Accessibility 

As technology advances, so does the realm of closed captioning and subtitles. Automatic Speech Recognition (ASR) and Natural Language Processing (NLP) technologies have revolutionized the generation of closed captions, making them more accurate and timely.

Similarly, machine translation algorithms have elevated the quality of subtitles, enabling smoother communication across languages.

In addition, innovative technologies have significantly increased the accessibility of content for people with disabilities. Speech recognition and machine translation technologies have transformed how people with hearing or visual impairments perceive and interact with video content. 

Automated systems for converting speech to text and transforming it into customized formats for the hearing impaired have improved access to information and entertainment.

Thanks to machine learning and artificial intelligence technologies, subtitles are more accurate and faster and can be adapted to individual user needs. 

For example, personalized settings for playback speed or preferred subtitle display style (size, color, location on the screen) make watching content more convenient for each individual.

Technology solutions are also actively working on tools to automatically generate audio descriptions, which greatly improves the accessibility of content for people with visual impairments by allowing them to better understand what is happening on the screen through audio-visual descriptions.

These technological advances not only improve the quality and accessibility of content for all users but also contribute to a more inclusive environment where everyone can enjoy media content regardless of their disabilities and needs. 

Closing Thoughts

The differences between closed captions and subtitles, though subtle, are instrumental in shaping how diverse audiences engage with content. 

As content creators and consumers alike, understanding and appreciating these distinctions propel us toward a future where accessibility is not just a feature but a fundamental aspect of storytelling – a world where everyone, regardless of their abilities or language, can partake in the magic of audiovisual narratives.

It is clear from the article that both of these features play a key role in making content accessible to people with different needs. Closed captions and subtitles have similarities but also differ in specific use and purpose. 

Closed captions are designed to convey not only dialog but also sound effects and other audio information, making content more fully accessible. Closed captions, on the other hand, focus on translating only speech, ensuring that content is understood by people whose languages are different from the original language.

It is important to understand the difference between closed captioning and subtitling as it allows for more accessible content to be created for a wider audience. 

Both features play an important role in promoting inclusion and diversity in media and different fields, ensuring that information can be understood by people with different needs.