Captions
Captions are time-synchronized text representations of the spoken dialogue, sound effects, and other audio in a video, used by deaf and hard-of-hearing viewers and by anyone watching with sound off.
Detailed explanation
Closed captions can be turned on or off by the viewer; open captions are baked into the video. WCAG 2.1 SC 1.2.2 (Captions, Prerecorded) at Level A requires captions on all prerecorded audio in synchronized media. SC 1.2.4 at Level AA extends this to live audio.
Automatically generated captions can contain omissions, timing errors, speaker mistakes, and incorrect names. Captions should be reviewed by a person against the actual media rather than accepted from a platform accuracy claim.
How this applies to Shopify stores
Caption support depends on how a Shopify theme or embedded player renders the media. AccessComply can surface reached video elements without a detectable captions track for review, but embedded-player settings, caption quality, and equivalent content require manual verification.
What merchants should check next
Treat this term as a practical audit prompt, not just a definition. Check the storefront pages where the concept shows up in real customer journeys: product discovery, add-to-cart, cart drawer, checkout handoff, account login, and support contact flows. If the issue affects code, verify the rendered HTML and computed browser output after the theme change. If it affects copy or media, keep the merchant-facing wording accurate and easy to maintain.
Primary source: w3.org