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Always Show Captions in Zoom
Overview
Zoom documents a participant setting to keep captions persistent: users can enable the “Always show captions in meetings and webinars” toggle from the Accessibility tab in the desktop app (support article). If a host enables captions, they will be “automatically displayed” for the participant on join (same source). Quote: “Always show captions in meetings and webinars toggle” (same source). Lesson: defaults matter most in live, time-pressured contexts.
Why it matters
In meetings, missing a sentence can mean missing a decision. Captions reduce exclusion for Deaf and hard-of-hearing participants, and also support comprehension when audio quality is poor or environments are noisy. Persistent caption defaults lower the burden on disabled users to re-enable access every session, which reduces “self-advocacy tax.” Treat captions as core meeting infrastructure: enable at the account level when possible, make visibility settings personal, and pair captions with transcripts and speaker attribution to reduce ambiguity.
Learn more
- https://adata.org/factsheet/communication-access-realtime-translation-cart
- Captioning for Access - National Association of the Deaf - https://www.nad.org/resources/technology/captioning-for-access/
- https://www.w3.org/WAI/media/av/captions/
- https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/accessibility/business/inclusive-meetings
Take action
- https://www.w3.org/WAI/WCAG21/QuickRef/#captions-prerecorded
- Microsoft Inclusive Design - https://inclusive.microsoft.design/
- https://www.nngroup.com/articles/accessibility-people-disabilities/
- Managing automated captions as the host of a meeting or webinar - https://support.zoom.com/hc/en/article?id=zm_kb&sysparm_article=KB0062813
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