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Auto Captions on TikTok
Overview
On April 6, 2021 (PT), TikTok launched auto captions, “a new feature to help people who are hard of hearing or deaf better use and enjoy TikTok” (newsroom post). Captions are generated automatically after upload/recording; creators can edit text; viewers can toggle captions off (same source). Quote: “Auto captions automatically generate subtitles...” (same source). It initially supported American English and Japanese (same source). Lesson: accessibility requires both automation and creator control.
Why it matters
Video without captions excludes Deaf and hard-of-hearing users and degrades comprehension in noisy or silent contexts. Auto-captioning shifts access from “optional creator effort” to platform capability, increasing baseline availability even when creators forget or do not know how to caption (TikTok). The benefit emerges when caption UX is reliable: editable transcripts, quality controls, and multi-language coverage. Default toward captions in creation and playback, then design workflows that make correction fast so errors do not become a new barrier.
Learn more
- 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.fcc.gov/consumers/guides/closed-captioning-television
- Description Key - What to Describe - https://dcmp.org/learn/618-captioning-key
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