--- title: "Captions (Prerecorded)" url: "https://barrierefreihochzwei.de/en/wcag/1-2-2-captions-prerecorded" language: "en" description: "Prerecorded videos with sound need captions, including sounds and speaker names. Learn how to meet WCAG 1.2.2 with captions viewers can turn on and off." published: "2025-01-01T08:00:00+01:00" updated: "2026-10-15T09:41:59+02:00" --- # Captions (Prerecorded) When videos need to make sense without sound. - **Erfolgskriterium:** 1.2.2 - **Prinzip:** Perceivable - **Konformitätsstufe:** Level A - **Erklärung beim W3C:** [www.w3.org/WAI/WCAG22/Understanding/capt...](https://www.w3.org/WAI/WCAG22/Understanding/captions-prerecorded.html) Success criterion 1.2.2 # 1.2.2 Captions (Prerecorded) Level APerceivable When videos need to make sense without sound. ## 1. What is the goal of this criterion? Watch a video with the sound off – say, on the sofa in the evening while someone is asleep next door. Without captions, the interview, tutorial or brand film is reduced to a series of moving images. You see lips moving and miss everything that’s being said. For deaf and hard of hearing people, that’s not an evening scenario but everyday reality. The goal of Success Criterion 1.2.2: every prerecorded video with sound needs captions that fully convey the audio. That makes the spoken word visible – and your video understandable for everyone. ## 2. What exactly does it require? Captions must be provided for all prerecorded audio content in synchronized media – that is, videos that combine picture and sound. Good captions cover more than just dialogue: **Everything that’s said** – complete and as close to verbatim as possible, not paraphrased. **Speaker identification** when several people talk or the speaker isn’t on screen. **Meaningful sounds** such as \[phone rings\], \[applause\] or \[dramatic music\] – anything that helps people understand what’s going on. It’s worth separating this from subtitles for foreign languages: captions in the WCAG sense are aimed at people who can’t hear the audio, so they also include sound information. The criterion’s exception: if the video is only a media alternative to existing text and is clearly labelled as such, captions aren’t required. ## 3. Why does it matter for accessibility? For deaf and hard of hearing people, captions are the key to video content. But the group of users is much larger: - **Deaf and hard of hearing people** get full access to the audio - **People learning a language** find speech easier to follow with text support - **People in loud or quiet places** – from the gym to the waiting room – watch without sound - **People with attention or processing difficulties** benefit from reading along Lots of people watch videos without sound in everyday life, especially on the go and on social media. Captions are a familiar habit by now – WCAG simply makes them mandatory. ## 4. How to meet the criterion **Go for closed captions.** Closed captions – for example a WebVTT file on an HTML video, or the caption feature on YouTube and similar platforms – can be turned on and off, restyled and read by machines. Open captions burned into the picture also meet the criterion, but they’re less flexible. ``` ``` **Start with automatic recognition, then correct by hand.** Auto-captions give you a base, but they stumble over names, technical terms and accents. Left unchecked, they usually don’t meet the criterion – and accessibility quickly turns into unintentional comedy. **Sync carefully.** Captions need to appear at the same time as the speech and stay on screen long enough to be read – as a rule of thumb, no more than two lines at once. **Don’t forget the sounds.** Anything that helps understanding goes into the captions in square brackets: \[laughs\], \[door slams\], \[music turns menacing\]. **Build captions into production.** Captions are cheapest when they’re planned during editing – not bolted on afterwards. Live streams have their own criterion, by the way: [Captions (Live)](https://barrierefreihochzwei.de/en/wcag/1-2-4-captions-live). ## 5. Why this criterion matters for businesses ### 1. More reach With captions, your video works wherever the sound is off – in the feed, in the office, on the train. That way you reach people who would otherwise scroll on after a few seconds. ### 2. Discoverable video content Caption files make spoken content available as text. That can help platforms and search engines understand your videos – an indirect effect, since accessibility isn’t a direct ranking factor. ### 3. A requirement, not a nice-to-have Since 28 June 2025, the European Accessibility Act has applied to many consumer products and services; in Germany it’s implemented by the Barrierefreiheitsstärkungsgesetz (BFSG). The benchmark is EN 301 549, which refers to WCAG 2.1 Level AA, and public sector bodies have their own obligations. Captions for prerecorded video are a basic Level A requirement – without them, WCAG conformance is out of reach. (General information, not legal advice.) ## 6. The success criterion in the W3C’s words > **Success Criterion 1.2.2 Captions (Prerecorded) (Level A)** > > Captions are provided for all prerecorded audio content in synchronized media, except when the media is a media alternative for text and is clearly labeled as such. In short: every prerecorded video with sound needs captions – unless it’s clearly labelled as an alternative to existing text. **Official explanation from the W3C** The W3C explains every success criterion in depth – with intent, examples and techniques. [Understanding 1.2.2](https://www.w3.org/WAI/WCAG22/Understanding/captions-prerecorded.html) ## More criteria from “Perceivable” [ 1.1.1 Level A ### Non-text Content When images need words. ](https://barrierefreihochzwei.de/en/wcag/1-1-1-non-text-content) [ 1.2.1 Level A ### Audio-only and Video-only (Prerecorded) When podcasts and silent videos need a second form. ](https://barrierefreihochzwei.de/en/wcag/1-2-1-audio-only-and-video-only-prerecorded) [ 1.2.3 Level A ### Audio Description or Media Alternative (Prerecorded) When videos need a second narrative track. ](https://barrierefreihochzwei.de/en/wcag/1-2-3-audio-description-or-media-alternative-prerecorded)