26 days ago•

Subtitle style guide for accessibility across YouTube, Netflix, and corporate video

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Prompt

You are an accessibility-first subtitle editor who has delivered captions for Netflix, Apple TV, and Deaf-led content studios. Produce a complete subtitle style guide for [content_format] content targeting [audience_needs] on the [delivery_platform] platform.

The style guide must cover:
1. Line length, line count, and reading speed rules (characters per line, words per minute)
2. Speaker identification conventions when multiple people are on screen
3. How to caption non-speech audio (music, laughter, ambient sound, silence)
4. Emphasis handling — shouting, whispering, emotional stress
5. Foreign language and accent handling that respects the speaker
6. Timing rules — minimum on-screen duration, lead-in, lead-out, overlap
7. Formatting specifics — font weight, placement, background, safe area
8. Accessibility pitfalls that exclude Deaf and hard-of-hearing viewers
9. A 10-item QA checklist for a final subtitle pass

Write this as a real deliverable document — something an intern could follow on day one without asking questions. No platitudes. Every rule must be specific enough to act on.

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You are an accessibility-first subtitle editor who has delivered captions for Netflix, Apple TV, and Deaf-led content studios. Produce a complete subtitle style guide for [content_format] content targeting [audience_needs] on the [delivery_platform] platform. The style guide must cover: 1. Line length, line count, and reading speed rules (characters per line, words per minute) 2. Speaker identification conventions when multiple people are on screen 3. How to caption non-speech audio (music, laughter, ambient sound, silence) 4. Emphasis handling — shouting, whispering, emotional stress 5. Foreign language and accent handling that respects the speaker 6. Timing rules — minimum on-screen duration, lead-in, lead-out, overlap 7. Formatting specifics — font weight, placement, background, safe area 8. Accessibility pitfalls that exclude Deaf and hard-of-hearing viewers 9. A 10-item QA checklist for a final subtitle pass Write this as a real deliverable document — something an intern could follow on day one without asking questions. No platitudes. Every rule must be specific enough to act on.

Example output

# SUBTITLE STYLE GUIDE — LONG-FORM YOUTUBE CONTENT FOR DEAF AND HARD-OF-HEARING VIEWERS ## 1. READING SPEED & LINE LENGTH - Maximum 42 characters per line, 2 lines max per subtitle card - Reading speed: 17 characters per second for adult content, 12 CPS for educational content aimed at younger viewers - If the spoken line exceeds CPS budget, break into multiple cards — never compress by removing meaningful words ## 2. SPEAKER IDENTIFICATION - Use speaker name in brackets and all-caps at the start of a new speaker's first line on screen: [HOST] Welcome back. - If only two speakers alternate, use a hyphen convention on line two: "— Did you see it?" for second speaker - Off-screen narration: [NARRATOR] in brackets - Unidentified voices: [MAN], [WOMAN], [CHILD], never guess ## 3. NON-SPEECH AUDIO - Music: [soft piano playing] — describe mood and instrument, not just "music" - Lyrics that matter to the content: italicize and prefix with a musical note character - Laughter: [laughs], [chuckles], [nervous laugh] — differentiate when meaningful - Silence that carries meaning: [silence] — only when the silence is intentional plot/beat - Ambient sound: [rain intensifies], [footsteps approaching] — only if narratively relevant ## 4. EMPHASIS - Shouting: ALL CAPS for the emphasized word only, not the whole line - Whispering: (whispered) prefix, then normal case - Emotional stress: italics for the stressed word - Sarcasm: do not mark — rely on context and words ## 5. FOREIGN LANGUAGE & ACCENTS - If a phrase is in a language other than the primary audio language and is not translated on screen, transcribe in original language and italicize. Do not phonetically spell accents — it infantilizes the speaker. - If the language switch is plot-relevant and untranslated in audio, add [speaks Spanish] rather than translating for the viewer ## 6. TIMING - Minimum on-screen time: 1.2 seconds per card, even for short interjections - Maximum on-screen time: 7 seconds before splitting - Lead-in: caption appears 0-2 frames before first phoneme - Lead-out: caption exits 2-10 frames after last phoneme - Do not overlap speaker changes on the same card unless dialogue is genuinely overlapping; use dual lines with speaker marker ## 7. FORMATTING - Font: sans-serif (Roboto, Inter, or system default), regular weight, never italic as primary - Size: 4.5% of video height for 1080p, scaled for other resolutions - Placement: bottom third, centered, respecting 10% safe-area margin - Background: semi-opaque black box (70% opacity) behind text, not a drop shadow — readable over any scene - Line break: break on syntactic boundaries (not mid-phrase) ## 8. COMMON ACCESSIBILITY PITFALLS - Captioning only the words, not the sound design — excludes Deaf viewers from emotional context - Paraphrasing speech to save space — changes meaning - Missing speaker changes when two voices sound similar - Ignoring background speech that's plot-relevant - Using music-note symbols instead of describing the music ## 9. FINAL QA CHECKLIST 1. Every spoken word is captioned 2. Every plot-relevant non-speech sound has a description 3. No line exceeds 42 characters 4. No card stays on screen less than 1.2 seconds 5. Speaker IDs are consistent throughout 6. Emphasis is marked with CAPS or italics, not both 7. Foreign phrases are italicized and correctly spelled 8. Captions do not overlap on-screen graphics or lower-thirds 9. Timing has 0-2 frame lead-in, 2-10 frame lead-out 10. Full pass watched with audio muted — comprehension test

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