Advances in live captioning technology are making web communications clearer and helping people with disabilities.
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Google is bringing its Live Caption technology to every website with the new version of Chrome. The feature attempts to convert any audio source on the web into text that appears on your screen. For some users, the captions are more than a convenience.
“Many people with ADHD and other neurodivergences use captions to help them process language and information, myself included,” Catie Osborn, a TikTok user with more than 400,000 followers, said in an email interview. “Captions aren’t just for the deaf or hard of hearing, and many users have expressed frustration with TikTok for its lack of accessible captions.”
Google's Live Captions also work for files stored on your hard drive when you open them in the browser. Google says this support also extends to social and video sites, podcasts and radio content, personal video libraries (such as Google Photos), embedded video players, and most web-based video or audio chat services. Currently, it only supports English.
