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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.
