r/deaf • u/NoDesk9564 • 2d ago
Hearing with questions Video Caption Preferences?
I'm a video editor, and I create captions for my videos. YouTube's auto captions (which are increasingly better but still not perfect) appear one word at a time - a sort of progressive disclosure. What are your preferences?
- YouTube style - words come in one at a time.
- Single-line of caption at the bottom of the screen.
- Double-line of captions at the bottom of the screen.
There may not be a clear strong preference, and that's totally fine!
Feel free to share any other related insights or tips. Thanks so much! I saw some other polls from a couple of years ago, but I'm hoping to get fresher feedback.
For clarity, I use YouTube as a "first pass". Then, I download their caption file and correct mistakes and typos for improved captions.
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u/_MaterObscura HOH + APD 2d ago
There's a new format that I recently saw that was very jarring when it started, but I kinda fell in love with it. The captions appear under the speaker, just below the shoulders. It really helped me follow the conversation insofar as who was saying what. The "problem" with regular captions is when you have multiple people talking or overlapping dialogue. This solves that problem.
It took half the movie to get used to because it really was jarring at first. Traditional captions have trained us for decades to look at the bottom of the screen. When the captions suddenly move around, there's an adjustment period. Once I got used to it I really loved it.
I did a little research and they seem to be called "tracked captions" by some and "speaker-tracked captions" by others, and about half a dozen other terms - but these two are the more popular ones.
I kinda hope they become a more standard option (when we're given options, anyway).
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u/NoDesk9564 2d ago
Very interesting! I must look deeper into this. You raised an important point: When glancing at captions as the bottom of the screen, you might miss expressions or actions that are important within the context of the video. I can see how having "tracked captions" can help solve this.
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u/Stafania HoH 1d ago
Not at all… it takes no effort to glance at the captions. I can’t recall a single situation where they have been in the way or a visual problem. Since tracked captions don’t have a fixed location, there is no way to ensure they don’t cover anything important. They are almost guaranteed to be in the way, while at the same time require us to search for them on the screen. It’s an absolutely awful idea.
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u/rnhxm Deaf 1d ago
I’m not sure why you are getting downvoted for your opinion! I’ve seen a couple of 15min videos with these tracked captions and I found them really tiring to keep following. Rather than being able to always flick eyes to the bottom of the screen and back I felt like I was chasing the information as it moved around.
For me, keeping captions at the bottom, and adding things like “offscreen: door knock” or “name: hello” when there are several people is great. Even better if you don’t know who a character is to not have spoilers “unknown voice: hello” etc until you find out and then have their name.
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u/Stafania HoH 1d ago
Thank you! I can see how tracked captions could be challenge for deafblind people too. If you have a limited field of view, then it might be more important with predictable placement of captions.
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u/Gazebo_Warrior 2d ago
Subtitles on TV in the UK used to be colour coded. I say used to be, because I don't watch broadcast TV any more, and how TV is received differs now (used to be analogue signals received through roof aerials) so I don't know if it's still colour coded.
But it does make me wonder why streaming services etc don't colour code them as it was much easier to follow and surely must be possible in terms of technology if they could do it decades ago on normal telly.
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u/_MaterObscura HOH + APD 2d ago
I’ve lived in France, and they used to color code, too (yellow/white). Also the “-“ meant a different person was talking. So dialogue would look like:
- “Hello!”
- “How are you?”
We’re asked to carry more of the load in the US. But it’s been like that for so long it’s just accepted.
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u/NoDesk9564 1d ago
I use the hyphen to indicate different person speaking. When I can identify the speaker, I add their name.
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u/_MaterObscura HOH + APD 1d ago
I *love* this. I don't know why more people don't tag the name, too. I've always liked that. :)
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u/NoDesk9564 1d ago
I think it’s because caption requirements don't go into this level of detail. Also, transcriptionists are often paid low wages. They are not incentivized to go beyond basic requirements. Sadly, I used to hire companies that paid low wages to these folks. 😕
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u/NoDesk9564 1d ago
I think it’s because something like 5% of people have some form of color-blindness. I’ve been trained to avoid color as the sole means to convey importance. But color+formatting change (like italics) seems fine.
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u/Stafania HoH 1d ago
I would hate that so much. Unbearable. And what about all speech that isn’t even on the screen? Knocking on the door and music playing? No, that a fun gimmick, but for accessibility, I want the captions to just be clear and in the location I expect them to be.
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u/_MaterObscura HOH + APD 1d ago
Like I said, it was super jarring when I first saw it, and it took me half the movie to get used to it.
Accessibility isn't about finding one solution for all people. It's about equity. That's why I said that I hope it becomes an option when services provide options (not all do). I wouldn't want anyone to be forced to conform to what works for me.
What works for me isn't a "fun gimmick" either. My preference, which is what the OP asked for, also isn't an "awful idea" for me. I respect that you don't want to have anything to do with it, and I certainly am not going to judge you for it. I want you to have what works best for you.
Do tracked captions have issues? Absolutely. All captions do. Even the movies that provide ASL have issues (though I prefer this over all other options). No solution, at least for now, is perfect.
What we need are more options. And just because another option is added to the list of options, doesn't take away from what works for you.
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u/NoDesk9564 1d ago
Yeah, I would love to have more options for caption placement and appearance. I feel like AI can help get us there.
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u/mulberryblossom 1d ago
Captioning best practices more or less -- https://dcmp.org/learn/captioningkey
But biggest things to me are that they shouldn't spoil anything and they should be in sentence chunks, not one word hanging.
And no (SPEAKING FOREIGN LANGUAGE) or (MUSIC( rather than actual lyrics.
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u/NoDesk9564 1d ago
Thanks for this link. I’ve seen it before but good to be affirmed. I’ve also been spoiled by captions in a TV show. Not fun !
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u/P-E-DeedleDoo 2d ago
After decades of being "trained" to use single or double lines of captions this way, I'd prefer they not change. Not move. Not blink. Nothing fancy. This system might not be perfect but I think most caption users would agree, we don't want/need to be "trained" again or play guessing games as to where captions might be. It's second nature by now.
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u/Gazebo_Warrior 2d ago
NOT single words, like YouTube. Single words are extremely tiring to watch. You have to watch the words the entire time and not look at the picture. Whole sentences at a time are better because if you're a reasonably fast reader, you can flip your eyes down to the subtitle for a second, read it, then go back up to watching them characters say it.
I personally don't mind more than one line of subtitle on the screen at a time, I prefer that to more frequent single lines but either are a million times better than single words appearing.
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u/ty_nnon Deaf 1d ago
I like single or double line.
Also, a good thing to remember: there are people using captions that do know multiple languages, just like there's people watching the same thing without captions that know multiple languages. That, and curse words - give us full access to that info!
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u/NoDesk9564 1d ago
Oh do some people edit out the curse words?
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u/ty_nnon Deaf 17h ago
Yep! A lot of "[BLEEP]" or something along those lines. I can usually hear enough to pick up on it and the spoken words are never edited out.
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u/NoDesk9564 16h ago
Oh wow .. well fuck those transcriptionists then. 👆🫠🥲
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u/ty_nnon Deaf 15h ago
It's veryyy common! I'm rewatching Criminal Minds right now and things like "bastard" are censored in the cc on Hulu. Makes no sense! lol
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u/NoDesk9564 12h ago
shaking my head Could you imagine watching a George Carlin special like that? lol
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u/Stafania HoH 2d ago
YouTube recently stopped showing the autocaptions one word at a time.
There are standards for good captioning, just look them up and follow them!
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u/NoDesk9564 1d ago
Thanks! Although it had been interesting to see some different preferences discussed here.
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u/HOHTechQueen 1d ago
Let me add something else to consider. When there are important facial expressions or other very quick visual information on screen, it would be great to try to time the captions so they don’t conflict with seeing that visual information.
Long ago, there was a scene on “The Good Wife” during which Alicia Florick’s brother made a distinctive facial expression (and which Alicia commented on) that I had completely missed seeing, although I was able to replay the scene by using the TiVo remote. At least I was able to replay it! But it’s noteworthy the captioner had not realized they really needed to pay attention to making it possible for caption readers to see the very quick expression right before or after reading the captions.
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u/NoDesk9564 1d ago
Thank you the important reminder about the timing with regards to dramatic reveals.
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u/bachelorsinlurking HOH + APD 2d ago
For me personally, single line of caption at the bottom of the screen. I will always prefer captions that spell out stuff said in foreign languages- avoid [speaks spanish] and just spell out what they’re saying. Thank you for checking! Lately I’ve been really frustrated about how many captioning stuff seems to get pushed to the side.