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( Perceivable / WCAG 1.2.2 )

Video is missing captions

This check maps to Captions (Prerecorded). Use the guidance below to confirm the issue, understand who it affects and ship a fix.

Critical Level A WCAG 1.2.2 — Captions (Prerecorded)

What’s wrong

A <video> element contains audio but has no <track kind="captions"> element.

Why it matters

Deaf and hard of hearing users cannot access spoken content in a video without captions. This affects a much larger group than most people expect — around 1 in 6 people have some degree of hearing loss. Captions also help anyone watching without sound, which in many contexts is the majority of viewers.

How to fix it

Add a <track> element inside your <video> pointing to a WebVTT caption file. The kind must be "captions" (not "subtitles" — subtitles don’t include non-speech audio like sound effects).

Before
<video src="/intro.mp4" controls></video>
After
<video src="/intro.mp4" controls>
  <track
    kind="captions"
    src="/captions/intro.en.vtt"
    srclang="en"
    label="English"
    default
  >
</video>

If you’re using a third-party video player like YouTube or Vimeo, enable captions in the embed settings rather than via a <track> element. Auto-generated captions are better than nothing but should be reviewed for accuracy, especially for technical content or proper nouns.

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