Subtitles for the deaf and hard of hearing
We all know subtitles, but for people who are deaf or hard of hearing it is very important. If they can't hear what's being said or how the music sounds, they're missing important information from the video. The subtitles allow a person to read what is being said, but not how it is being said, or what sounds are important to the story.
If you make subtitles accessible to people who are deaf or hard of hearing, then you also put in capital letters and between brackets which emotion you hear in the voice, so that the same sentence can suddenly take on a completely different meaning, for example:
(SAD) I don't like green beans.
(Gagging) I don't like green beans.
(ANGRY) I don't like green beans.
(LAUGHING) I don't like green beans.
Display emotions
By displaying emotions with the text you can better understand how someone feels when you can't hear it. In the example below, something keeps changing in Riley's emotion. She starts talking louder and gets angrier. By putting that in the subtitles, it is also clear if you can't hear it.
Lyrics
If there is singing in a video, you should of course also write the lyrics in your subtitles. That way someone who is deaf can still read what is being sung. To ensure that it is clear that it concerns the lyrics, and therefore sung music, we add musical notes. It is then clear to everyone that it is being sung. Check out the example below to see what that looks like.