Subtitles

Key Points

- Good for different nationalities of people with disabilities related to hearing & cognitive processing.

- Subtitles translate a video’s language into another language on screen (e.g. foreign language films).

- Subtitles should not be confused with Closed Captions

More detail about Subtitles versus Captions

Closed captions strictly speaking, only display spoken audio as text in the same language as the original audio.

The image below shows a video scene with the following closed captions “Hey everyone, who wants a coffee?”. The caption is timed with the original spoken audio to help people with hearing and/or cognitive disabilities.

The same scene after selecting Spanish subtitles (for example), would instead display text on screen as “Hola a todas, ¿quién quiere un café?”

Subtitle quality & appearance is important

People should be able to select an accurate subtitle language to suit their needs.

However, more often than not, users are only given a single option of auto-generated subtitles. Problems with accuracy of translation quality can arise as a result.

To explain further, subtitles that are auto-generated are often presented without meaningful, correct translations. That is all the more profound when appropriate cultural & localised language is omitted as a result of using auto-generated subtitles.

A person who wishes to select subtitles in their own language, should also have the option to modify the appearance of those subtitles to adapt them to their needs (e.g. subtitle appearance adaptable for people with low vision or dyslexia).

Subtitles are contained within SRT files, which stands for SubRip Subtitle. When formatting SRT files, it is important to ensure timestamps accurately align with spoken word content.

To assist users to adapt subtitles for easier reading, use of dynamic fonts may help. Dynamic fonts allow for optical resizing to enhance readability on small screens, contrast level changes for light and dark mode screen environments, and choosing wider widths between font characters.

Conclusion

In summary, if you wish your video content to reach a broad spectrum of countries, it is wise to ensure subtitles are accurate & attuned to specific country customs.

Attention to detail is essential. For example, localised translations are more personal and accurate timestamps for subtitles help match the timing of spoken content, both of which create a better user experience.

By providing good quality subtitles, it is possible to include different nationalities & people with disabilities, in numerous ways that appeal to everyone.