Zoom Captions Settings for Accessibility

Why Captions Matter

Zoom has a built-in closed captioning function that can make meetings accessible for people with hearing and learning disabilities, but it requires meeting leaders to turn them on manually in the extended browser settings.

Step 1: Enable Captioning in Browser Settings

1. Go to your Zoom Settings → Meeting tab.
2. Scroll all the way down to In Meeting (Advanced).
3. Toggle Closed Captioning, and Save Captions to ON.
4. Make sure both Allow use of Caption API and Enable Live Transcription are checked — this allows subtitles to appear in a sidebar that remains visible after something is said.
5. Enabling Save Captions is useful for post-meeting note-taking. If it is not enabled, meeting participants can still take screenshots of the sidebar, so it's a kind gesture to toggle it on.

Step 2: Turn On Captions During a Meeting

1. Once your meeting starts, click the CC icon in the meeting control bar.
2. Select Enable Auto-Transcription.
   This will activate both live closed captions and a transcript sidebar. You can also save the transcript automatically if the meeting is recorded.

Congratulations, you're done. Now your meeting is accessible!