Media Strategy Lab

Editing utility guide

Subtitle Accessibility
compliance and better reach, same work

Accessible video is a legal requirement for many organisations and a reach advantage for everyone else. The confusion is that burned-in social captions and accessibility captions are different deliverables solving different problems, and most teams ship one and assume they have done both.

Last updated · Reviewed by the Media Strategy Lab edit team

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Benchmark data from our 1.2B+ view dataset

Aggregated from short-form campaigns produced by Media Strategy Lab in 2025-2026.

38%

median hook retention

22%

3-sec drop-off

31s

avg. watch time

problem-statement or pattern-interrupt

best hook type

2.1 cuts per 10s

cut density

Format and pacing profile

dominant format

Talking head + supporting B-roll

shot length

2-4 seconds

B-roll ratio

40:60 B-roll to face

pacing note

Lead with the hook, cut on breaths, use text reinforcement at 3-5s intervals.

Clean dialogue with a music bed ducking -20 LUFS under voice.

Technical specifications

Caption accuracy standard99%+ including punctuation
Caption file formatsSRT, VTT (web), SCC (broadcast)
Reading speed ceiling160–180 words per minute
Text contrast ratio4.5:1 minimum (WCAG AA)
Speaker identificationRequired for 2+ speakers
Non-speech audio cues[door closes], [laughter]
Audio descriptionRequired where visuals carry meaning
Line lengthMax 2 lines, ~42 characters each

Buyer context and objections

who buys

Editors, social managers and marketing teams doing the work in-house

typical budget

Free guide — retainers from $2,495/mo if you want it done for you

common objection

We can probably work this out ourselves

failed prior attempt

Copying a tutorial without adapting it to the destination platform

Our 5-step process

  1. 01

    Brief and audit — we review your goals, past performance and raw material before touching a timeline.

  2. 02

    Hook extraction — every asset is scanned for the highest-retention 1-3 second opener.

  3. 03

    Native edit — pacing, captions, safe zones and sound are tuned to the destination platform.

  4. 04

    Revision rounds — two included rounds with timestamped comments, no ticket queue.

  5. 05

    Delivery pack — masters, verticals, captions, thumbnails and a posting brief in one drop.

Case example

A public sector client needed WCAG 2.1 AA compliance across 200 archived videos. We delivered corrected SRT files, speaker identification and audio description on 40 visual-heavy pieces. The captions also produced an unexpected benefit: search traffic to the video pages rose measurably once transcripts were indexed.

Keep going: Video Editing for Coaches — built for transformation, authority and enrolment, Event Recap Video Editing — that extends the moment for months, Cost Per Short — priced by cut density, not runtime.

Pricing anchor

Our monthly retainers start at $2,495/mo for 15 shorts and scale to $3,995/mo for 30 shorts plus long-form support. Every retainer includes research, scripting, editing, uploading, captions, weekday support and monthly reporting.

View packages

Burned-in is not the same as accessible

Burned-in captions cannot be turned off, resized, restyled or read by assistive technology, and they are frequently styled at contrast ratios that fail WCAG. They are excellent for sound-off feed viewing and insufficient for compliance.

Ship both: styled burned-in captions for retention, and an accurate SRT or VTT track for accessibility, caption toggling and platform indexing. The marginal cost is a few minutes per video.

What accuracy actually means

Ninety-nine percent or better, including punctuation, speaker changes and non-speech sounds that carry meaning. Auto-captions at 92 to 97 percent do not meet this, and the errors cluster on names, jargon and numbers — the words that matter most.

Cap reading speed at 160 to 180 words per minute. Where speech is faster, condense rather than truncate, keeping the meaning and the speaker's voice intact.

Beyond captions

Where meaning is carried visually — a chart, an on-screen figure, a silent demonstration — captions alone leave blind and low-vision users without the content. Either describe it in the narration, which benefits everyone, or provide an audio description track.

Narration-first design is usually cheaper and better than retrofitting description: writing scripts so that nothing important exists only on screen removes most of the problem at source.

Turnaround estimator

Interactive, no email required. Numbers come from our own production data.

Edit complexity

Short-form turnaround

2 business days

Long-form turnaround

4 business days

Add one day per extra revision round beyond two.

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Frequently asked questions

Do burned-in captions meet accessibility requirements?

No. They cannot be disabled, resized or read by assistive technology, and they often fail contrast requirements. They serve sound-off viewing well, but compliance also requires an accurate caption file such as SRT or VTT.

What accuracy do accessibility captions need?

Ninety-nine percent or better, including punctuation, speaker identification and meaningful non-speech sounds. Auto-captions typically reach 92 to 97 percent, which is not compliant and concentrates its errors on names and technical terms.

SRT or VTT?

VTT for web embedding, since it supports styling and positioning. SRT for broad platform compatibility — YouTube, LinkedIn and most social platforms accept it. We deliver both by default because the conversion is trivial.

What contrast do captions need?

At least 4.5:1 against the background under WCAG AA. Because video backgrounds change, a solid or semi-opaque backing plate, or a strong stroke, is the reliable way to hold that ratio throughout the video.

When is audio description required?

When meaning is carried only visually — charts, on-screen figures, silent demonstrations. The cheaper and better approach is to write narration so nothing important is visual-only, which helps every viewer and removes the need for a separate track.

Does accessibility help SEO?

Yes. Caption files and transcripts give search engines indexable text for the video, improving discovery of both the video and the page it sits on. Several clients have seen meaningful search traffic gains purely from adding transcripts.

Get a sample edit for Subtitle Accessibility

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