When you add captions (i.e. text in the original language) and/or subtitles (translated text) to your videos, you enhance the viewing experience and extend your reach. We invite you to check it out for yourself by watching our video on subtitling with captions or subtitles on. To turn them on, click on the gear icon at the bottom of the video on YouTube to access the video settings, and select the subtitles or captions of your choice by clicking on ‘Subtitles/CC’.

As you have probably noticed, captions and subtitles are convenient as they enable you to better understand and retain the content of the video, in particular when watching videos in a foreign language or when specialised terminology or personal names are used.

In addition, they allow you to watch videos in sound-sensitive environments. Whether you are on public transport, in an open space office or in quiet places like libraries, you can turn the silent mode on and still enjoy the video.

Using captions and subtitles also makes your video accessible to Europe’s diverse population and favours a more inclusive community, as recommended in the accessibility policies that the EU has recently adopted.

Lastly, a side benefit is that you will increase your visibility on the web, since search engines index text content much more easily than audio and video material.

More information about subtitling is available in our new leaflet:

Did you know?

Since June last year, we have been using the same speech-to-text technology for subtitling as for transcription and automatic transcription. Besides bringing important efficiency gains, this optimised process makes the outsourcing of the subtitling service easier, which enables us to respond to a demand that is expected to grow further in the coming years.