Originally published on LinkedIn
Burning in captions for many types of video is bad practice—it breaks accessibility and can be distracting. It’s amazing how many big brands still do it.
I am often asked to provide videos with captions. Great! All videos should have captions if someone is speaking, so people with screen readers or audio/visual challenges can access the content on their terms.
However, I’m not talking about burning text into short 15-second social pieces designed to be played without sound. I’m referring to longer explainer videos and marketing pieces meant to include sound or a voiceover.
Personally, I hate watching a video on LinkedIn, YouTube, Facebook, Vimeo, X, etc., where the agency or client has chosen to burn in captions. Oh, it’s a real pet peeve!
You can’t turn them off, and if you have a disability, they can prevent you from using your own caption system with your preferred font, size, colour, and contrast settings. This defeats the entire purpose of making the video accessible!
Here’s a simple approach (most of the time):
- Make a version without burnt-in captions.
- Create a version with burnt-in captions—but only for use in places where sound or digital captions aren’t possible. (It’s amazing how many learning platforms still don’t support them!)
- Create a separate captions file (often an SRT) to upload to your platform of choice as a digital, live, accessible caption option.
Research shows that adding captions increases the viewing length of a video. So, they’re not just for people with accessibility challenges—some people just prefer them! But at least give us a choice.
And don’t even get me started on the fonts some agencies choose for caption, or the size and colour, contrast…
NOTE: Some sites, like LinkedIn, mute videos by default so burning in captions and breaking accessibility is an inevitable must. Treat it as marketing.