Captions (Prerecorded)

What it requires

WCAG 2.0 SC 1.2.2 requires synchronized captions on every prerecorded video that has audio — product demos, tutorials, founder stories, ads. Auto-generated YouTube/Vimeo captions are an acceptable starting point but require human review for accuracy.

The captions must be synchronized with the audio timing and must convey both spoken dialogue and meaningful non-speech audio (music cues, sound effects).

Common Shopify failure

Hero-section autoplaying product demo video with audio voice-over and no captions. Tutorial videos embedded in product pages without captions or transcripts.

How to fix it

AccessComply detects `<video>` elements without `<track kind="captions">` and missing transcripts, and flags them for the merchant to add. Where YouTube embeds are used, the agent verifies caption availability via the YouTube Data API.

Merchant QA checklist

• Scan the storefront page where this pattern appears: product pages, collection pages, cart drawer, customer-account pages, and any landing page built with theme sections.
• Confirm the issue is fixed in the rendered browser output, not only in the Liquid file. Shopify section settings, app blocks, and third-party scripts can reintroduce the same 1.2.2 failure after a theme edit.
• Re-test the affected component with keyboard navigation and a screen-reader accessibility tree before publishing the theme, especially when the fix changes markup or ARIA attributes.

How AccessComply handles it

AccessComply treats WCAG 1.2.2 as a rendered-storefront issue first. The scanner checks the live DOM and computed styles, maps the finding back to the Shopify theme file that produced it, then classifies the fix as a manual-review finding. When automation is safe, the app writes the smallest theme-code change needed and keeps the original theme backup available. When merchant judgment is required, the issue is surfaced for manual review instead of pretending the page is fixed.

Primary source: W3C — WCAG 2.0 Understanding 1.2.2