You’re launching an instructional video, introducing a new product, publishing an explainer for a new online learning environment, or you’ve created a fun TikTok or Instagram Reel to promote your business. How do you ensure your content is accessible to everyone, including people who have a hearing impairment?
One effective way to ensure your videos - and your message - reach a wider audience is to provide subtitles for the deaf and hard of hearing (SDH).
European Accessibility Act
The European Accessibility Act (2025) says that businesses must ensure their products and digital services are accessible to persons with disabilities. You can see this in features such as text-to-speech technology, notched bank cards that can be identified by touch and accessible e-books. Video content also plays an important role in accessibility, and subtitles are one of the most effective ways to make information available to a much wider audience. But what does effective video accessibility look like in practice?
To answer that question, it helps first to consider how your video communicates its message. Is your video a short instructional video that relies mainly on on-screen text, or do you use narration, dialogue or a presenter to communicate your message?
Subtitles for the deaf and hard of hearing (SDH)
In both cases it is important to provide subtitles for the deaf and hard of hearing (SDH). Unlike standard subtitles, which focus primarily on spoken dialogue, SDH also convey non-verbal audio cues such as background sounds, music, speaker identification and vocal nuances. This additional information helps viewers with hearing impairments fully understand the content and context of your video.
Here are some examples of subtitles for the deaf and hard of hearing:
[Sofia] It’s essential to provide SDH
with your videos.
[excited tone] This is brilliant!
[festive music swells]
Challenges and pitfalls in subtitling
Subtitling for deaf and hard-of-hearing audiences requires careful attention to a number of rules. For example, subtitles should remain on screen for no longer than 7 seconds, reading speeds should not exceed 20 characters per second and lines should be limited to 42 characters. In addition, word breaks should be avoided and related words should be kept together wherever possible. These requirements can make subtitling short, information-dense videos surprisingly challenging.
Videos containing large amounts of on-screen tekst
When the message of your video is conveyed mainly through on-screen text, subtitles for the deaf and hard of hearing generally provide less added value than in videos that feature spoken narration or dialogue. Combining subtitles with on-screen text is not always straightforward. Because text-based videos often present information at a faster pace than spoken dialogue, ensuring that viewers have enough time to read everything can be difficult.
When a video contains only on-screen text and no narration or dialogue, subtitles are typically limited to conveying background music, sound effects and other relevant audio cues.
Here are a couple of common examples:
[rousing music]
[a door opens]
Videos with lots of narration or dialogue
In videos where narration and dialogue drive the story, subtitles for the deaf and hard of hearing are essential. In these cases, the story and key information are communicated primarily through speech rather than on-screen text. SDH enable people with hearing impairments to follow the narrative and understand the content on an equal footing with other viewers.
TikTok trends and Instagram Reels
As more companies embrace short-form social media content to connect with younger audiences, compliance with the accessibility requirements laid down in the European Accessibility Act is often overlooked. TikToks and Reels can also be made accessible by including subtitles for deaf and hard-of-hearing viewers. However, because these videos are typically short and fast-paced, with a maximum duration of 90 seconds, ensuring that subtitles remain readable can be a challenge. When drafting your script, therefore, focus on the information that is genuinely relevant to your audience. A professional text writer can help you refine your message and keep it concise.
Automatically generated subtitles and AI
Although platforms such as TikTok can generate subtitles automatically, the results are not always reliable and may contain transcription errors. Today, a range of AI-enabled editing tools allows you to add and refine your own subtitles. Even so, human review remains essential to catch spelling mistakes, grammatical inconsistencies and misinterpretations. If you would rather leave subtitling to a specialist, our professional subtitlers can help ensure your videos are both accessible and linguistically accurate.
Practical accessibility tips for video content
Due to the timing and space limitations inherent in subtitling, it is not always possible to capture every aspect of the original speech of your videos in full detail. For this reason, it can be helpful to provide a transcript of your video alongside subtitles for the deaf and hard of hearing, particularly if the video appears on your website. One of the great advantages of transcripts is that they are free from the time and space constraints that apply to subtitles. This makes it possible to include the full dialogue in the video transcript. To maximise accessibility for people with hearing impairments, the transcript should also identify speakers and describe relevant non-speech elements, such as background sounds, music and significant changes in intonation.
Providing a short introductory description, for example as a caption above your video, can help viewers understand its content and purpose before they start watching. This is particularly useful for instructional videos, where users may be looking for specific information.
And you can make your video even more inclusive and accessible by providing transcripts or subtitles in several languages.
Advice
Want to ensure your videos are accessible to the widest possible audience? Taalcentrum-VU is happy to help you with subtitles for the deaf and hard of hearing as well as transcription and multimedia translation services tailored to your needs. Contact us for advice or a quotation.
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