How to Access Closed Captions (CC) and Transcripts in YouTube Videos

Summary

For the deaf or hard of hearing, YouTube offers Transcripts and Closed Captions (CC) that can be displayed at the bottom of the video along with options to make them look exactly the way you want.

Body

How to View Captions


After clicking a YouTube link, you will be taken to the site and directly to the video. To make sure you don’t miss anything, pause the video. In the bottom right hand corner of the player, there should be a small CC button that is displayed next to the settings cog wheel. Click the CC button to reveal the captions.

Most of the time YouTube will default to their auto-generated captions using Google’s speech-to-text technology, but other times there will be captions available that have been transcribed by a real person. To select what captions are displayed, click the settings wheel next to the CC button and a menu should appear. In the list of items there will be an option labeled Subtitles/CC that allows you to change what is displayed.

 

Customizing Your Captions


If captions are shown and you’re happy with the results, feel free to skip this step. But for those who want to make their captions more visible there are additional options available.

By navigating to the same menu for changing Subtitles/CC that we went to in the section previous, you will also find that there is a button for additional options in the top right.

Here there is a large selection of customization options for your caption text including things like font, color, size, and opacity. As you can see in the example image below, I have changed my color to magenta.

If you decide you would rather have it the way it used to be, there is a reset button at the bottom of this list.

 

Viewing Transcripts


To view the video's captions in a transcript, select the  button below the video and select Open transcript.

A box will appear to the right of the video. Here you'll find each caption that appears and the time it comes up in the video. You are able to copy and paste this if you like. 

Details

Details

Article ID: 129099
Created
Tue 3/2/21 10:13 AM
Modified
Thu 6/24/21 1:02 PM