Why Inaccessible Product Videos Without Subtitles Could Cost Retailers Festive Sales

Much has been written about accessibility on retail websites, but there’s a growing blind spot that could hit hardest this Christmas: product videos. From demo clips and tutorials to festive promotions, videos now drive buying decisions on retailers’ own sites, across marketplaces, and on platforms like YouTube.

Yet while a recent index found retail web pages averaging more than 350 accessibility issues each, many brands are losing out on crucial product visibility simply because their videos aren’t accessible. Too often, they lack captions, transcripts, or audio descriptions — barriers that not only exclude people with disabilities, but also frustrate everyday shoppers browsing on mute or looking for quick clarity.

Text captions are essential for making videos inclusive for people who are deaf or hard of hearing, as well as for those with difficulty processing auditory information or anyone watching without sound. With Christmas trading approaching, inaccessible video content risks lost sales, abandoned baskets, and even product takedowns on marketplaces — handing revenue straight to more inclusive competitors.

To be clear, this is not only about legal risk. Making video content accessible helps every shopper: people browsing on mute, customers who prefer text over audio, and users who need clearer explanations of what is happening on screen. Accessibility considerations, such as using clear fonts and sufficient contrast, also ensure videos are usable by everyone. Retailers that treat video accessibility as part of the core customer experience will reach more people and convert more often.

Introduction to Accessible Videos

Creating accessible videos is fundamental to ensuring that everyone, regardless of ability, can engage with your video content. Accessible videos are designed to provide equal access to information, entertainment, and education for all users, including those with disabilities such as visual impairments or hearing loss. This commitment to web accessibility is not just about compliance—it’s about making your web content truly inclusive.

The Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) offer a comprehensive framework for making video content accessible. These content accessibility guidelines (WCAG) outline requirements such as providing audio descriptions for visual elements, captions for spoken dialogue, and transcripts for audio content.

By following these standards, creators can ensure their videos are accessible to people with a wide range of needs, including those who rely on assistive technologies. Ultimately, accessible videos help deliver the same information to everyone, supporting equal access and a better user experience across the web.

Video Accessibility and Consumer Behaviour

Visual media has become a cornerstone of e-commerce. In 2025, 87% of consumers have been convinced to buy a product or service by watching a video, and around 51% rely on product videos to make purchase decisions. But those convincing, informative videos only work if everyone can perceive them.

A shopper who is deaf or hard of hearing won’t get the message from an uncaptioned gift guide video. Captions and subtitles are essential for people who are deaf or hard of hearing, ensuring they can access and understand video content. A customer with low vision won’t gain insight from a product demo with no narration or description.

Even users without disabilities can be affected – 59% of people watch videos with the sound off, and subtitled videos have a 26% higher completion rate . In short, an inaccessible video is a missed opportunity to engage and convert a huge segment of your audience.

These media barriers feed into the broader challenge of cart abandonment and customer drop-off. Industry research shows nearly 70% of online shopping carts are abandoned, often due to friction in the buying process. Inaccessible videos add another layer of friction. For example, if a promo video explaining a festive deal has no captions, a customer browsing on mute (or one with hearing loss) might miss critical details and give up on the purchase.

Captions and subtitles, whether in the same language as the spoken language or translated, help make video content accessible to a wider audience, including people who may not understand the spoken language. Shifting consumer expectations make the stakes even higher – 80% of customers say the experience a company provides is as important as its products.

A seamless experience means everyone can quickly get information and navigate offers. Ensuring videos have clear captions, sound descriptions, and easy controls improves those touchpoints for every visitor, not just those with disabilities.

Visual Information and Accessibility

For many viewers, visual information in videos—such as demonstrations, facial expressions, or on-screen graphics—can be a barrier if not made accessible. Individuals with visual impairments may miss out on crucial details unless these visual elements are described in a way they can perceive.

This is where audio descriptions come in: by narrating key visual content, audio descriptions provide a spoken account of actions, settings, and other important visual information, either as a separate audio track or integrated into the main audio.

In addition to audio descriptions, descriptive transcripts offer a text-based alternative that captures both the video’s dialogue and its visual elements. These transcripts are especially valuable for people who are blind or have low vision, as well as those who prefer reading over listening.

By including both audio descriptions and descriptive transcripts, creators ensure that all visual content in their videos is accessible, making it possible for everyone to fully understand and enjoy the material.

Video Accessibility as Risk Management

There is also a serious compliance dimension. Retail has already been a top target for accessibility-related lawsuits in the U.S., and now new regulations in Europe are raising the bar worldwide. The European Accessibility Act (EAA) came into effect in June 2025, requiring digital content – including videos – to be accessible across the EU.

The EAA applies to a wide range of products and services, not just websites, meaning businesses must ensure all digital offerings meet accessibility requirements. Additionally, different EU countries may have their own specific accessibility requirements and guidelines, which can affect how retailers implement video accessibility. This isn’t a vague guideline; it’s backed by real penalties.

In France, recent legal actions under the EAA put retailers on notice that online services must be accessible to all, with fines for non-compliance reaching up to €250,000. The Netherlands’ regulators can impose fines up to €450,000 for accessibility violations, and even require companies to report any accessibility issues that arise. In short, ignoring video accessibility isn’t just a bad user experience – it’s now a liability that can lead to costly fines, lawsuits, or orders to fix content on tight deadlines.

Beyond government enforcement, marketplaces are introducing their own crackdowns. Major e-commerce platforms in Europe have begun auditing product listings for accessible media. As marketplaces enforce stricter standards, brands face the risk of product delisting if their video content doesn’t meet requirements. In fact, some retailers have already experienced temporary takedowns of product pages after accessibility audits flagged non-compliant demo videos (like those lacking any voiceover or descriptive transcript).

The result? Products can literally disappear from search results and shelves until the videos are fixed. With peak season looming, no seller wants to find their best-selling item was removed due to an avoidable caption or transcript issue. Treating accessibility as a mere “checkbox” risks both lost sales and reputational damage at the worst possible time.

The standards every retail accessible video content must meet

For retailers, WCAG 2.2 sets out clear rules for pre-recorded videos. At the simplest level, every video with speech needs captions that include both spoken words and important sounds like music or effects.

Open captions are always visible on the video and cannot be turned off, while closed captioning allows viewers to toggle captions on or off as needed. Some platforms offer automatic captions or automatically generated captions using speech recognition technology, but these often require manual review and editing for accuracy.

Audio-only content such as podcasts must have a transcript, and a basic transcript should include speaker identification and can be created from an audio file or video. Providing a text version or text-based version of the video's dialogue ensures accessibility for users who cannot hear the original audio. Silent videos or product demos without narration need a descriptive transcript that explains what’s happening on screen.

Media alternative transcripts combine dialogue and visual descriptions for maximum accessibility. If key information is only shown visually — for example, a chart, a close-up of a product, or on-screen text — it must also be described through audio description or text so it isn’t lost. Videos should also identify the correct language, avoid flashing content, and make sure captions and on-screen text have enough colour contrast to be readable.

Beyond the rules, there are best practices that improve the experience for everyone: keeping captions short and easy to read, making sure they stay on screen long enough, translating them for different markets, and avoiding distracting motion. Caption files are essential for supporting interactive transcripts and customizable captions in media players.

Providing captions and transcripts helps provide access to video content for all users, and retailers should add captions to all videos with spoken language. A media player or media players must support these accessibility features, including the ability to upload caption files and adjust caption appearance.

Taken together, these steps make sure product videos are understandable and usable by the widest possible audience — whether a shopper is deaf, blind, browsing on mute, or simply distracted in a noisy room.

Accessible Video Players

An accessible video player is just as important as accessible video content. To ensure that everyone can interact with your videos, choose video players that support a full range of accessibility features. This includes keyboard navigation for users who cannot use a mouse, compatibility with screen readers for those who are blind or visually impaired, and easy-to-use controls for enabling closed captions, audio descriptions, and other accessibility features.

Meeting the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) is essential for any accessible video player. Look for video players that allow users to adjust caption appearance, toggle accessibility features, and work seamlessly with assistive technologies.

By prioritizing accessible video players, you make your video and audio content usable for a diverse audience, ensuring that your web content is inclusive and compliant with content accessibility guidelines (WCAG).

Web Accessibility and the Law

Web accessibility is not just best practice—it’s a legal requirement in many regions. Laws such as the European Accessibility Act (EAA) and the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) mandate that digital content, including videos, must be accessible to people with disabilities. Failing to provide accessible videos can result in legal action, fines, and reputational damage.

Beyond compliance, accessible videos can also boost your search engine optimization (SEO) and increase audience engagement, as search engines can index captions and transcripts, making your content more discoverable.

By adhering to the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) and ensuring your videos meet accessibility standards, you not only protect your business from legal risk but also expand your reach and improve the user experience for everyone.

What Retailers Can Do Now

The good news is that retailers don’t need to wait months to start improving their video accessibility – and even small fixes now can pay off during the holiday rush. The most impactful steps begin with focusing on revenue-critical videos in the shopper journey: product detail videos, explainer clips, promotional reels, how-to guides, and even content embedded in a blog post. Ensuring these are accessible can reduce abandonment and capture more sales during Christmas and beyond.

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These steps provide access to a wider audience, including visually impaired people.

1. Audit and Caption Key Videos: Start by auditing your existing video library for common issues – identify any product videos missing captions, transcripts, or audio descriptions. Many companies are now performing internal audits to flag silentproduct demos or tutorial videos without text alternatives. Prioritize adding closed captions to all videos with speech; captions not only aid deaf or hard-of-hearing users, but also benefit anyone watching on a mobile device in a noisy (or quiet) environment. Similarly, provide text transcripts for videos – this creates a fallback for screen reader users and boosts SEO discoverability as well. Modern AI tools can help generate these captions and transcripts quickly at scale, which is crucial when you might have hundreds of product clips to update.
2. Add Audio Descriptions for Visual Content: If a video conveys important information through visuals alone (e.g. a close-up product demo, before/after shots, or an on-screen infographic in a gift guide video), include audio descriptions or narrated voice-overs that describe those key visuals. This ensures blind or low-vision shoppers aren’t left guessing what happens on screen.
   Audio description can be as simple as inserting brief narration or on-screen text that a screen reader can announce. The EAA specifically requires audio description for videos where visual information is not otherwise described.
   By planning for this during video production (scripting narration to cover visuals), retailers can avoid having to retrofit videos later. When creating transcripts, also consider including a detailed video description to further enhance accessibility for all users.
3. Use Descriptive Transcripts Where there’s no Audio: Like many product demo clips or rotating product showcases a descriptive transcript may be the better fit. This goes beyond a standard transcript by capturing not just dialogue, but also the actions, settings, and visual details needed to understand the video without watching it.
   Marketplaces similar as Amazon and Sephora are already asking for this with product demos, and YouTube doesn’t currently allow you to upload descriptive transcripts separately. Within Subly, however, you can also merge subtitles with a transcript into a single caption file – creating both compliance and a better user experience in one step.
4. Leverage Automation + Expert Review: Just as with web accessibility, a combination of automated tools and human insight yields the best results. Automation now makes it possible to scan and remediate entire video libraries against WCAG checks at scale, from captions and transcripts, low-contrast text in videos, to detecting when descriptive transcripts or audio descriptions are required.
   Subly covers the bulk of this work automatically, so teams don’t need to be accessibility experts to get started. However, it’s important to sometimes review — for example, confirming a discount code in captions is displayed correctly or fine-tuning a visual description — adjustments can be made quickly in the editor.
   By combining automated fixes for scale with human reviews for nuance – and doing so continuously as new videos are produced – retailers can keep pace with both accessibility standards and the frenetic update cycle of seasonal content.
5. Integrate Accessibility into Workflows: The savviest retailers are moving accessibility “upstream” in their content creation. Rather than remediating videos after they’re live, build steps into your production workflow to get it right from the start. This means writing scripts with accessibility in mind (e.g. including voice narration for any text that appears on screen), budgeting time for adding captions before publishing a video, and using templates that already have space for transcripts.
   Content and marketing teams should be trained on the basics of video accessibility so that each campaign or product launch accounts for it naturally, not as an afterthought. Web designers also play a key role in ensuring accessibility is considered from the very beginning of the process.
   By normalizing these practices, you’ll reduce last-minute scrambles to fix videos when a complaint or compliance deadline hits.
6. Ensure Video Players Are Usable: Accessibility isn’t only about the content in the video – it’s also about controlling the video. Make sure your video player has keyboard-accessible controls (play, pause, volume, captions toggle, etc.) so that users who can’t use a mouse can still operate it.
   Use players that support adjusting caption appearance (size, contrast) for readability.
   Avoid any auto-playing videos that can’t be easily paused, and ensure any pop-up video elements don’t trap keyboard focus. During the holidays, shoppers may be quickly browsing; a video that hijacks their experience or can’t be controlled will drive them away fast.

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Looking Ahead

The festive season is perhaps the most urgent test for your video accessibility efforts – with surges in traffic and sales on the line – but the benefits extend far beyond December. As more consumers shift their spending online, seamless digital experiences are becoming a baseline expectation year-round.
Accessibility, once seen as a niche or compliance-only concern, is now integral to delivering the kind of frictionless interaction that builds loyalty. Accessible videos not only help you capture the immediate sale from a shopper with a disability; they also signal to all customers that your brand is inclusive and user-friendly. Features like captions, transcripts, and multiple language subtitles make content more versatile and engaging for everyone, from multitasking parents to international audiences.

Creating accessible content—such as videos with captions and alt text—ensures inclusivity and provides access to a wider audience, including people with disabilities. This approach broadens your reach and supports equitable engagement experiences for all users.

Crucially, new legal frameworks are making accessibility an ongoing obligation. The EAA and similar laws ensure that this isn’t a one-time project for 2025, but a permanent aspect of digital commerce.
Retailers that act now – investing in accessible video content and the tools to maintain it – can not only capture more sales this Christmas but also lay the groundwork for stronger customer relationships in 2026 and beyond. Those that don’t risk falling behind in an increasingly competitive marketplace where usability and accessibility go hand in hand.

In the end, making your product videos accessible is about reaching the widest possible audience. It means no shopper is left squinting at an uncaptioned tutorial or confused by a silent demo. This festive season, an inclusive approach to video could be the gift that keeps on giving – in customer goodwill, in compliance peace of mind, and yes, in conversion rates too.

Conclusion

Creating accessible videos is a vital part of web accessibility and a key step toward a more inclusive digital world. By providing audio descriptions, captions, and transcripts, you ensure your video content is accessible to people with disabilities and usable by a wider audience. Choosing accessible video players and ensuring compatibility with assistive technologies further enhances the experience for all users.

Following the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) not only helps you meet legal requirements but also improves SEO, increases engagement, and demonstrates your commitment to equal access. In today’s digital landscape, accessible videos are essential for reaching every customer, building brand loyalty, and staying ahead of compliance standards.

By making your videos accessible, you’re investing in a more equitable and successful future for your business and your audience.