I don’t remember when I started adding alt text to photos. That’s not to say I’ve been doing it for soooo long. Back in my hand-coded HTML days, it wasn’t a regular practice. It’s only been in the last ten years (perhaps less?) that adding alt text has become the polite thing–and then the right thing—to do online. I just don’t remember when or why I started.
What I know for sure is that I was inspired by someone else. Someone wrote about the benefits of alt text. Someone showed us how to add it
excellent post.
however, to the point:
As I’m planning to make video content again, I’m thinking about whether I want to add hardcoded captions.
No! No you don’t!!
Find a hosting provider that allows you to have a separate .srt file for subtitles. NEVER burn them into the video EVER. Some of us need to customize how subtitles look for more visibility. Some (many) of us would like subtitles in our language, someday − not having an .srt file means we can’t translate it, and it also means we can’t show regular subtitles on top of the ones you made, that would be unreadable.
(For what it’s worth, Youtube and Peertube do work with .srt files. TikTok doesn’t, so you want to hardcode them there, I’m afraid.)
(and happy indieweb carnival!)