WCAG 1.2.4 — Captions (Live)

Who Is Affected

Deaf and hard-of-hearing residents who want to participate in live government meetings, public hearings, or other live audio content. Also benefits people in noisy environments or those who process written information better than spoken information.

What This Means

When your government streams live video content with audio (like city council meetings, public hearings, or press conferences), you must provide synchronized captions that appear in real-time as people speak. This is different from prerecorded captions — live captions require either human captioners or automatic speech recognition technology that works during the broadcast.

Live captions don't need to be perfect word-for-word transcripts, but they must convey the essential information and identify who is speaking. The captions should appear with minimal delay (ideally within a few seconds of the spoken words).

Fix: Content Editor

For government meetings and live streams:

1. Choose a live captioning solution:

   • YouTube Live — Enable automatic captions in your stream settings (free but less accurate)
   • Microsoft Teams — Turn on live captions for public meetings
   • Professional CART services — Hire a real-time captioner for important meetings
   • Rev Live Captions — Professional service with human captioners

2. Set up before going live:

   • Test your chosen captioning system with a practice session
   • Ensure speakers have good microphones and speak clearly
   • Brief participants to state their name before speaking
   • Have a backup plan if the captioning system fails

3. During the live stream:

   • Monitor that captions are appearing and generally accurate
   • If using automatic captions, have someone ready to switch to a backup method
   • For critical meetings, consider having a staff member type supplementary information in the chat

4. Quality considerations:

   • Live captions should capture at least 95% of the dialogue accurately
   • Speaker identification should be clear ("Mayor Smith: ..." or similar)
   • Important proper nouns (names, places, technical terms) should be spelled correctly

Fix: CMS / Theme

If you frequently host live content, integrate captioning into your standard workflow:

1. WordPress users:

   • Install a live streaming plugin that supports captions
   • Set up templates for recurring meeting types with captioning enabled by default

2. Joomla users:

   • Configure your live streaming component to include caption settings
   • Create standard operating procedures for staff who manage live content

3. Platform integration:

   • If using embedded YouTube or other platforms, ensure your embed code includes caption controls
   • Test that captions display properly on mobile devices
   • Verify that your site's CSS doesn't interfere with caption styling

Standard Reference

WCAG 2.1 Success Criterion 1.2.4 — Captions (Live), Level AA

Captions are provided for all live audio content in synchronized media.

• W3C Understanding SC 1.2.4
• WCAG Technique G9 — Creating captions for live synchronized media
• WCAG Technique G87 — Providing closed captions
• WCAG Technique G93 — Providing open captions
• WCAG Failure F8 — Failure due to captions omitting important dialogue
• WCAG Failure F74 — Failure due to not identifying language changes in captions