Live Webinar Audio With No Real-Time Captions

Why it matters

Deaf and hard-of-hearing participants in live streams, classes, and meetings.

How to test

Join the live stream and check for a captions option (CART or live speech-to-text): if entirely absent, it fails.

How to fix

Readable, reasonably accurate real-time captions must run for the entire live event.

<div id="live-stream"><!-- live video --></div>

<div id="live-captions" aria-live="polite"></div>

Real-time captions, from a human captioner or a checked automated feed, must ship with the live audio, not after it.

Outcome

On an e-book reader's library page, this barrier is gone for deaf and hard-of-hearing participants in live streams, classes — they can complete the task without hitting this wall.

Who is affected

Deaf and hard-of-hearing participants in live streams, classes, and meetings.