Graphic Captions

A captioning approach that uses visual elements such as GIFs, animated stickers, icons, or emojis to represent sounds in audio-visual content, as an alternative or complement to traditional text-based bracket notation. Graphic captions can convey additional information about a sound's properties — such as volume, emotion, and spatial location — more intuitively than text alone. Research suggests graphic captions may be more appropriate for entertainment and social media content, while text-based captions may be better suited for serious or informational content. DHH viewers have expressed preferences for graphic captions to be optional and togglable, similar to the closed captioning model, to avoid visual distraction.