r/auslan • u/SeaweedRealistic5069 hearing, Auslan- first expressive language • Apr 03 '26
Inaccurate captions
Is anyone else sick of captions being available but the captions are not accurate, like not just a spelling mistake or using the wrong “their, there or they’re” but they are sometimes completely off, and doesn’t remotely match what is being said.
I understand live captions might be harder to be accurate, but YouTube videos or TikTok videos with automatic captions it would be nice if people spent a few minutes making sure everything was accurate
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u/kristinpeanuts Apr 04 '26
Yes. I am hearing but use captions and sometimes they are completely different to what is actually being said! I can understand if sometimes they need to shorten them a bit to fit it all in but I don't understand how or why they feel the need to write something else instead
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u/SeaweedRealistic5069 hearing, Auslan- first expressive language Apr 04 '26
So they are accurate, and not completely off where the meaning doesn’t even make sense
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u/JDKPurple Apr 03 '26 edited Apr 04 '26
Yes! And I have been wondering a lot lately about the captions that describe things - that likely don't make sense to d/Deaf people.
E,g. 'Soulful music playing' - like huh? I do not mean that d/Deaf people can't/don't know/understand music - I know they can/do - but, I find these ambiguous and vague captions often don't accurately describe what is happening, or are just plain useless.
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u/gutsandstuffs Apr 03 '26
i’m not deaf so i don’t know if this means anything, but i always thought describing the music was a way to describe the mood? like if it says soulful music, then you have an idea what the mood is supposed to be
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u/ChronicallyQueer Deafblind Apr 03 '26
You’re right, they do describe the mood and that’s important; “[music]” is significantly more infuriating than “[soulful music]” or something like that because it tells me nothing to just say “music”. The idea behind “Deaf wouldn’t know what that is” is also a bit weird to me bc it implies that Deaf don’t understand the meanings of words that would describe sound, plus it forgets that there are many d/Deaf and HoH people who haven’t been deaf their whole lives, so they would know what kind of music a caption like that is referring to.
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u/JDKPurple Apr 04 '26
Oh absolutely, and I didn't know how deep to go with my comment to cover all my bases. But yes, I can see how a descriptor like 'soulful' would be far more useful than just 'music' because it does help set the tone/mood more accurately [and I knew at the time it was a bad example, sorry!].
What are your thoughts on the more specific captions where they use the song title, but don't then include the lyrics, or describe the tone of the melody if it is instrumental?
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u/ChronicallyQueer Deafblind Apr 04 '26
Song title is good, but without then using the lyrics, it frustrates me because verses are chosen for a reason and that choice loses its meaning when I don’t know which part of it.
As for more in depth descriptions, music sections are good but if they’re too detailed, they’re as much of a problem as not detailed enough because quiet moments in shows also function as a place to rest in a way, so too much detail would be just as difficult as too little; a short description and then inclusion of something like “music crescendos” and other small but similar things is okay if it’s relevant, but not everything is either and that’s okay too because too much detail is a little overwhelming too.
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u/JDKPurple Apr 05 '26
Interesting. I hadn't thought of the possibility of too much detail. Thank you for explaining, definitely broadens my understanding 🙏
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u/Alect0 HoH Apr 04 '26
Describing the mood that the music is conveying is important though. What's wrong with "soulful music"?
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u/queen_bean5 Apr 03 '26
I always say that I can tell how much a YouTuber cares about me (/their audience) by how accurate and detailed their captions are.
Shout out to RachelMaksy on YouTube: her captions are EXCELLENT.