Video Localization: Captions & Spoken-Word

Video localization is how you make video content reach people who don’t share your language or can’t hear the audio. It splits into two broad families: text on screen (captions, which include sound cues like [door slams] for deaf and hard-of-hearing viewers, and subtitles, which assume you can hear but translate the words) and replacing the spoken audio (dubbing or voiceover in another language). It matters for the same two reasons as accessibility and i18n combined — reach and inclusion — and it’s worth knowing because a huge share of people watch video with the sound off regardless of ability.

When this page is filled in, it’ll cover the caption-versus-subtitle distinction, the WebVTT format you’ll most often implement on the web, the trade-offs of dubbing versus subtitling (cost, speed, authenticity), open versus closed captions, and the workflow questions — do you translate from a transcript, who reviews quality, how do you sync timing. Until then, the Go Deeper links carry it.