Hard of Hearing

Captions for Hard-of-Hearing Viewers

Live captions designed for hard-of-hearing audiences — large font support, high-contrast outlines, real-time accuracy. Setup takes 60 seconds in OBS.

Try Free for 6 Hours → See pricing

Hard-of-hearing isn't the same as deaf

Hard-of-hearing viewers can hear but rely on captions to fill gaps — especially in noisy environments, with mumbling speakers, or with heavy background music. Captions for this audience need to be highly readable: large font, clear outline, fast updates.

Most automatic captioning tools default to small fonts and slow chunked updates that frustrate hard-of-hearing users. We made the controls explicit so streamers can dial them in for max accessibility.

Customization for hard-of-hearing audiences

Font size up to 80px — slider in the control panel, real-time preview
2-4px outline — adjustable thickness so text is readable on any background
High-contrast colors — white-on-black, yellow-on-black, or any custom combo
Word-by-word streaming — captions appear as you speak, not in 5-second chunks (chunked captions are bad for hard-of-hearing viewers who use them to reinforce hearing)
Latency under 2s — caption is on screen by the time you finish the next word

How it works in OBS

Sign up at /control — 6 hours free
Pick your spoken language as both the source AND the target language (e.g. English → English)
Copy the browser source URL
In OBS: Sources → + → Browser Source → paste URL → set width 1920, height 1080 → done
Captions appear over your scene — adjust position via OBS or our font controls

Why hard-of-hearing viewers stay longer with captions

Hard-of-hearing viewers don't always announce themselves in chat. But they tell us in DMs and Discord: "I leave streams without captions in 30 seconds. I stay 60 minutes when there are captions."

The retention math: even a 5% retention boost from accessibility = significantly higher Twitch viewer-hour metrics, which feeds into recommendation algorithms, which compounds your channel growth.

Frequently asked

What's the maximum caption font size I can set?

80px on the slider. For most streamers, 44-52px is large enough to be readable while still leaving room for gameplay. Hard-of-hearing viewers often appreciate the larger end.

Can hard-of-hearing viewers turn off captions if they want?

If you've burned captions into your stream via OBS browser source, viewers can't disable them — captions are part of the video. If you want toggleable captions, run a separate scene without the browser source.

Do captions update fast enough to follow conversation?

Yes. Sub-2-second latency is comparable to or better than human stenographer captions. Words appear as you speak, not in big chunks.

Is this for all hard-of-hearing levels?

Yes — from mild to profound. The font size and contrast controls let you adjust readability for any level.

Does this work with assistive listening devices and hearing aids?

Captions are visual, so they work alongside any assistive device. Many hard-of-hearing viewers use captions as backup when their hearing tech misses a phrase.