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Axe Core Guide

Axe Core 4.6

<video> elements must have captions

A track element with the property set to kind="captions" is required for an HTML5 video element. For deaf viewers, the captions must include all audible cues from the video, such as dialogue, musical cues, sound effects, and other pertinent information.

Users who are hard of hearing have limited or no access to a video’s content if it lacks a caption. Even if there is a captioning track, make sure it includes all of the video’s important content and not just the dialogue.

Without captions, deaf viewers are able to see everything in the video but are unable to hear anything. The dialogue, narration, and other crucial sounds that are not spoken by people—such as “dramatic instrumental music,” clapping, screaming, or other sounds that create the scene, provide context, or otherwise give meaning to the video—are not audible to deaf viewers without a caption track.

What this Accessibility Rule Checks

Makes sure all video elements have captions.

Learn more:

Related Accessibility Rules