Success Criterion 1.2.2
Conformance level A

Burned-In Captions Too Small or Low-Contrast to Read

1.2.2 — Captions (Prerecorded)

Scenario

Setting

A professional networking site's profile editor

What’s wrong

Burned-in (open) captions that are illegible: tiny, low-contrast, clipped by player chrome or crops on mobile.

Example

<video src="demo.mp4"></video>

Why it matters

Deaf and hard-of-hearing viewers, and anyone watching video without sound.

How to test

Play the video at actual size (not fullscreen) on a small screen: if burned-in captions are too small, low-contrast, or cut off by the player UI, it fails.

How to fix

Synchronized captions must be provided covering all dialogue, speaker identification, and important sounds.

<video src="demo.mp4">

  <track kind="captions" src="captions-en.vtt" srclang="en" label="English">

</video>

A <track> element with kind="captions" surfaces synchronized text for dialogue and important sounds.

Outcome

On a professional networking site's profile editor, this barrier is gone for deaf and hard-of-hearing viewers — they no longer have to work around this.

Who is affected