• Success Criterion 1.2.2
  • Conformance level A

Captions Translated Into Another Language Instead of the Original

1.2.2 — Captions (Prerecorded)

Scenario

Setting

A weather app's forecast screen

What’s wrong

Captions in a different language than the audio (only translated subtitles, no same-language captions).

Example 

<video src="/forecast/severe-weather-briefing.mp4" controls>
  <!-- Audio is spoken English; only a Spanish translation exists,
       no English captions for deaf English speakers -->
  <track kind="subtitles" src="/forecast/briefing-es.vtt" srclang="es" label="Español">
</video>

Why it matters

A deaf English speaker checking a severe weather briefing can only turn on Spanish text, which does nothing for someone who doesn't read Spanish and can't hear the English audio either.

How to test

Turn on captions and compare their language to the audio's language: if only translated subtitles exist with no same-language captions, it fails at Level A.

How to fix

Same-language captions satisfy 1.2.2; translated subtitles are a nice extra, not a replacement for them.

<video src="/forecast/severe-weather-briefing.mp4" controls>
  <track kind="captions" src="/forecast/briefing-en.vtt" srclang="en" label="English" default>
  <track kind="subtitles" src="/forecast/briefing-es.vtt" srclang="es" label="Español">
</video>

Outcome

A deaf resident reads the English captions and evacuates ahead of the storm on time.

Who is affected

Deaf and hard-of-hearing English speakers are left with no usable track at all, since the only option is a translation into a language they don't read.

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