Assembling Stories

Some tips and definitions for making accessible stories:

Subtitles vs. Captions

Subtitles only show the words that are said on screen.

Captions, on the other hand, translate all of the sounds in a video into onscreen text. Captions tell the audience who is speaking, what sounds are being included as part of the story, and what tone people are taking if it’s important to the meaning of the text. They also use a music note icon and the music lyrics when a song is playing.

The Re•Vision Centre uses captioning rather than subtitles.

Basic format

• Sans Serif type only.
• Opaque blocks behind white text when not on black screen.
• Use standard typography positioning to middle, bottom centre. 
• Avoid all caps unless necessary. 

Line breaks in captions can help to make the dialogue on screen more easily understood, but if not broken correctly, it can confuse the audience. For example:

Conventions and Practices

Identify who is speaking in square brackets:

[Narrator] They finally reached a consensus.

Identify when more than one person is on screen or when the speaker is not visible:

[Hildy] I found where you were hiding!

[Rebecca] Who says I was hiding?

Include all words, including slang and indicate that other languages/dialects are being spoken.

Timing

• Appear at approximately the same time as the audio is happening.
• Be exactly what is being said onscreen, or as close as possible.
• Appear on screen long enough to be read.

Intonation and emotion

• Use caps to indicate when a word is stressed.
• Use a label to indicate whispered speech, e.g., Whispers: We need to leave now.
• Use labels for inaudible speech, e.g., Loud music drowns out her voice.
• Use labels for pauses, because long pauses may lead viewer to wonder if the caption isn’t working, e.g., Long pause, Suspenseful music.

Music, sound effects and ambient sound

Sound effects and audible ambient sound should be included when they are relevant to the story and don’t interrupt spoken dialogue.

Be as specific as possible when describing sound.

• For music in the background or music as part of the action, use labels, e.g., She hums a foreboding tune, and classical music on the radio
• For music that is not part of the action, use Music: to indicate its beginning, and then the name of the music if known, e.g Music: “Lighting Crashes” by LIVE, or combine the two, e.g., She hums “A Change is Going to Come”
• Label mood music only when it is crucial to the plot, e.g., Calm music
• Indicate song lyrics with ♫
• Keep song punctuations to minimum
• Describe sounds instead of actions, e.g., Fireworks, not Everyone is lighting fireworks
• Sound-effect labels follow subject + active, finite verb structure, e.g., Wind howls
• Use sound labels for alerts: Doorbell
• Use different verb forms to help distinguish and describe sounds, e.g., If a baby cries once:
  (Baby cries)
  If a baby cries continuously:
  (Baby crying)
  Another example: (Birds chirping) or (Wind blowing through the trees) is more specific than (Forest sounds)

Adapted from:
The Closed Captioning Standards and Protocol for Canadian English Language Television Programming Services 
BBC Subtitle Guidelines 
Government of Canada Broadcasting Regulatory Policy
Humber’s Modules on Making Accessible Media: Accessible Design in Digital Media  
Ryerson’s Accessibility Resources (Captioning and Description)