Writing & StyleStyle guide

Editing Live Captions for Recorded Media

Editing Live Captions for Recorded Media records a distinct W3C-supported accessibility writing task while keeping implementation mechanics and unsupported house-style rules outside the guidance.

Quick answer

Live captions reused with a posted recording will probably need minor editing for accuracy.

Key details

Core IssueLive captions reused with a posted recording will probably need minor editing for accuracy.
Registerweb accessibility and interface content

Important caveats

Scope Boundary

This task is distinct from creating live captions in real time and from correcting fully automatic captions; the amount of editing depends on the actual recording.

Further guidance

Content

Review the live caption text against the recording and correct recognition, wording, or other accuracy problems before treating it as the caption track for prerecorded media.

Purpose

The edit turns a real-time accessibility aid into a more accurate prerecorded-media caption resource.

Sources and evidence

Sources are shown with the role they play in this guide. Historical or style-sensitive claims are kept within the evidence boundary described above.

  1. Captions/Subtitles — W3C WAI (opens in a new tab)World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) Web Accessibility Initiative · W3C WAI guidance that captions are synchronized text alternatives for speech and important audio information, with timing encoded in caption files.

Explore the topic