Video captions and transcripts for small-business websites

A welcome video, a product demo, a walkthrough of your clinic or a customer testimonial can all be great on a website. Without captions, though, the message doesn't reach visitors who are deaf or hard of hearing, or anyone watching with the sound off. This guide covers what to add and how to check it.

What WCAG 2.2 AA asks for (in plain English)

• Captions for recorded video with speech (1.2.2, Level A). Captions include who is speaking when it isn't obvious and important sounds such as [phone rings] or [laughter].
• Audio description for important visual-only information (1.2.3 at Level A allows a text alternative instead; 1.2.5 at Level AA asks for audio description). If the video shows something the narration never says, such as a price on screen or the steps of a demo, that information needs to be spoken or described.
• A transcript for audio-only content such as a podcast episode (1.2.1).
• No surprise sound (1.4.2). Audio that plays automatically for more than 3 seconds needs a way to pause or stop it.
• A way to pause moving content (2.2.2). Background videos and sliders that move for more than 5 seconds need a pause control.

W3C's Making Audio and Video Media Accessible covers each of these in more depth.

Auto-captions are a starting point, not the finish

YouTube, Vimeo and most phone editors can generate captions automatically. They are often close, but they tend to miss names, prices, street names, product names and medical or legal terms, and they rarely mark who is speaking or important sounds. Review them before you publish:

1. Watch the whole video with the sound off and read only the captions. Does it still make sense?
2. Check every name, number, price, phone number and address against what was said.
3. Add punctuation and break long lines so each caption is easy to read.
4. Add speaker names where it isn't obvious, and sounds that matter ([doorbell], [music stops]).
5. Make sure captions stay in sync with the speech.

Turn captions on where your video lives

Most small-business sites embed videos from YouTube or Vimeo, so the captions live on that platform, not on your site. Upload or edit the caption file there (both accept standard files such as .srt or .vtt) and the embedded player will offer them. If you upload a video file directly to Wix, Squarespace, WordPress or Shopify, check whether that player supports caption files; if it doesn't, host the video on YouTube or Vimeo and embed it instead. For your own HTML video player:

<video controls>
  <source src="tour.mp4" type="video/mp4">
  <track kind="captions" src="tour-en.vtt" srclang="en" label="English" default>
</video>

Add a transcript under the video

A short text transcript below the video helps people who use screen readers or braille displays, people who prefer to read, and search engines, which can't watch your video. For a testimonial, the transcript can be the quote itself. For a demo, list the steps. Link it right under the player: "Read the transcript".

Background videos and autoplay

• A muted background video on your homepage still needs a visible pause button if it moves for more than 5 seconds. Some visitors find motion distracting or it can make them feel unwell.
• Don't autoplay videos with sound. If you must, give an obvious pause or mute control at the top of the page.
• Don't put important text only inside a background video; put it on the page as real text too.

The embedded player needs a name

An embedded YouTube or Vimeo player is an iframe, and screen reader users hear its title when they reach it. Give it a meaningful one:

<iframe src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/VIDEO_ID" title="Video: a 2-minute tour of our clinic" allowfullscreen></iframe>

Builders often let you set this in the video block's settings; if not, it's a common item in our fix reports.

What a scan can and can't check here

An automated scan like ours can flag code-level problems around video: an embedded player with no title, a <video> element with no captions track, and media that is set to autoplay. It can't watch the video, so it can't tell whether captions exist on YouTube, whether they're accurate, whether on-screen information is described, or whether a background video has a working pause button. The review steps above cover that part. Our free alt text checker and keyboard navigation test cover other quick wins.

Want the fixes written for you?

Start with a free homepage snapshot. The $149 Fix-Pack scans up to 10 pages and gives copy-paste fixes for your platform within 48 hours, with a 14-day refund promise. See a sample report first.

This is general technical guidance, not legal advice, and it does not certify compliance with the ADA or any law.

Related guides

• Mobile website accessibility: pinch zoom, text size, reflow and tap targets
• How to test your website with a screen reader in 15 minutes (VoiceOver, NVDA, TalkBack)
• Website accessibility maintenance plan for small businesses: who owns it and what to check each month
• Webflow accessibility fixes: a practical checklist for small-business sites

All guides

This guide is general technical information, not legal advice. Following it does not certify ADA or any legal compliance. Automated checks find only part of accessibility barriers.