Preserve the WCAG distinction between “captions” and “subtitles”

Based on the new definition of “subtitles” introduced in EN 301 549 version 012

The WCAG definition of “Captions” acknowledges that “In some countries, captions are called subtitles”. But it also states that “Captions are similar to dialogue-only subtitles except captions convey not only the content of spoken dialogue, but also equivalents for non-dialogue audio information needed to understand the program content, including sound effects, music, laughter, speaker identification and location”.

WCAG is explicitly making a difference between the two terms. Implying that the two are equal or swapping out ‘captions’ in favour of ‘subtitles’ could lead to confusion when interpreting the WCAG success criteria.

W3C won’t support these updates as they are, as they would effectively alter the original meaning of “subtitles” in WCAG. W3C is open to considering edits to the currently proposed definition of “subtitles” that preserve the distinction made in WCAG between “captions” and “subtitles”.