Accessibility Highlight: Auto-Generated Captions

There are many things we can all be thanking disability rights advocates for. From ramps that make it easier to get into a building on a snowy day to automatic doors that open as we push our grocery carts through- disabled people have pushed for innovations that make everyone’s life easier. But what about your phone?

You may have noticed that a lot of videos on TikTok and Instagram now have captions that appear as the original poster (OP) is talking. What you may not know, is that a lot of these captions were created by the apps’ auto-generated captions features. You can now turn on captions or add a sticker and TikTok and Instagram will add auto-generated captions to your videos, stories, and reels. While auto-generated captions aren’t always the most accurate, users are able to go in and edit the captions, providing us all with the ability to quickly and easily add quality captioning to our videos. I’ve had to edit many videos for my work at MASS due to some very thick Boston accents 🙂

Captions are obviously necessary to people who are deaf or hard-of-hearing, but a lot of people who can hear are still fans of the captions. Sometimes it’s because we’re in a public place and don’t have our headphones on. Sometimes it’s because the person is hard to understand (I’ve had to turn on captions for some of my Scottish shows). And sometimes it’s because we learn more by reading. I’m someone who doesn’t learn or remember well when I’m just hearing something, so having captions is really helpful for me. Captions also help keep my attention.

Even if you don’t think you need captions, you will likely benefit from them at some point, and that’s what’s so great about good accessibility. It broadens the base of users and makes things better for all of us.

https://blog.hootsuite.com/auto-generated-captions-instagram/