Captions and media accessibility direction

Treat captions and accessibility tracks as production assets, not polish. Build them from the script, audio mix, edit, localization plan, and platform delivery target. If the user asks for legal compliance, say what standards you are using and recommend review by qualified accessibility/legal counsel; do not promise legal compliance from a generated file alone.

Start by classifying the media

Before writing or exporting captions, identify:

• Content type: prerecorded video with audio, live/near-live video, audio-only, video-only, or silent social cut.
• Audience need: captions for deaf/hard-of-hearing viewers, translated subtitles for hearing viewers, SDH, transcript, descriptive transcript, audio description, sign language, or platform-default auto captions.
• Delivery target: social burn-in, web player sidecar, broadcast/OTT, LMS/training portal, internal review, localized package, or archival master.
• Accessibility risk: essential visual text, charts, screen recordings, multiple speakers, overlapping dialogue, music/lyrics, sound-driven story beats, flashing/strobe, fast kinetic typography, low contrast, small mobile screens, or platform UI overlays.
• Final-source truth: the locked audio mix and final picture. Generated scripts, TTS drafts, and ASR transcripts are starting points, not the authority after edits.

Documented facts to preserve

Use these as factual constraints when relevant, citing the source in your output or handoff notes when the claim matters.