When should you use Videos have captions?
video-has-captionsfunctionalrequired
A video with no captions says nothing to a viewer who is deaf, hard of hearing, or watching with the sound off; every video with sound must offer synchronised captions.
When should you use this check?
Run this on any page with video. A video without captions says nothing to viewers who are deaf or hard of hearing, and nothing to the large share of people who watch with the sound off. Product demos, testimonials and course content are where it matters most.
When should you not?
It checks that native video offers a captions track; it does not read the captions or judge their accuracy. Videos embedded from YouTube, Vimeo and similar players keep their captions inside the provider, so those are listed for a person to confirm. A page with no video passes with nothing to check.
What does it inspect?
native videos with no captions track; caption tracks with no source file; embedded player videos to confirm
What does a failure mean?
A failure names a native video with no captions or subtitles track, or with a track that points at no file. A muted, looping, controls-less background video is listed for review instead: it needs no captions if it is silent, which the page cannot prove.
What are the Standard defaults — and why?
There is no threshold. WCAG 1.2.2 requires captions for all prerecorded audio in synchronised media; the check looks for the standard <track kind="captions"> or "subtitles" element.
How does an agent call it?
{ "type": "url", "validations": ["video-has-captions"] }Who governs the Standard?
SchemaFirst.org publishes community-governed standards for digital QA. ArbiterQA is a supporter and commercial licensee of those standards; citation does not mean SchemaFirst operates ArbiterQA.
Author ArbiterQA · Reviewed by ArbiterQA · 2026-10-01
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