Why I care about captioning

Published: Tue, May 9, 2023

Why does it matter?

Why does closed captioning matter to me? I’m not deaf, yet I still find them useful too. Closed captioning allows people who want to see captions to enable them, while others who don’t can avoid seeing them. People watching without sound like myself when in public without headphones can turn them on and mute the audio, while still understanding the video.

How do creators create them?

I prefer a program called “CADET” from GBH Boston. The program allows you to write and sync captions to your video. Afterwards, you can export those in many formats including those needed for YouTube, other sites, and even broadcast/cable channels. The program is free and works on Windows, MacOS, and even Linux. I’d advise you to give it a try. For YouTube, I’ll use a SCC (Broadcast Format) file but you can use an SRT file if you want something simple.

Quick Tips

I think that lines no longer than 32 characters are best for captions. While it’s possible to make them longer in formats other than SCC, please don’t. You’re viewers will thank you and so will I.

Thank you for reading this quick post. Please check “CADET” to get started.