Conversations about live captions may revolve around accessibility and inclusion, but what’s in it for businesses?
Hint: More than you may think. An 2022 report by Forrester outlined that investing in accessibility and user improvements can return up to $100 for every $1 spent.
From our decades of experience in multimedia and language services, we know that solutions like live captions—also known as real-time captioning—don’t come with a one-way benefit.
In fact, businesses can benefit from a sizable market share, winning future customers, improving engagement, and avoiding negative PR and complaints.
In this blog, we’ll delve into the ROI of live captions in more detail. Who uses live captions?
Who uses live captions?
Firstly, to understand where the benefits come from, it’s important to outline exactly who uses live captions.
Live captions work for a variety of audiences, including:
- People who are deaf and hard of hearing
- Non-native Englishspeakers
- Neurodivergent
- Dyslexic
Additionally, from our experience in the industry, we know that a good chunk of the audience may prefer live captions, including people physically there or attending online.
For example, UK accessibility charity Stagetext found that 80% of 18 – 24-year-old’s use subtitles all or some of the time. Out of that 80%, just 10% were deaf, deafened or hard of hearing.
In case you were unaware, live captions can be provided via a screen or a QR code. The latter provides more personalization because you can make the captions slower, which may suit some neurodivergent attendees.
The ROI for Businesses
Expand Market Share
A lot of people underestimate how many people benefit from live captions from public perception.
Figures do vary as to how many people in the U.S. have hearing loss—48 million people, according to the Hearing Health Foundation and around 37.5 million (over the age of 18), says the National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders.
However, both figures still make up a chunk of the U.S. population between 14.1% and 15% (of adults).
With that said, people with hearing loss still spend money. They go to concerts. Events. Festivals. Etc.
The U.S. disability consumer market is worth approximately $675 billion. While this spans all disabilities, not just people who are deaf or have hearing loss, it shows the cumulative funds that could be available to businesses.
There is an opportunity to take your market share which equals a good ROI.
Win Future Customers
Deaf and hard of hearing consumers don’t just purchase once; there is potential to create customers for life.
That is because disabled audiences are, generally speaking from our own experience of talking to people, more loyal to businesses when they feel looked after.
The same logic can be applied to non-native English speakers. If you made their experience a positive one, the likelihood they come back is increased.
Creating a better experience will bring reputational benefits in the disabled community. This reputational benefit can travel via word of mouth. For example, the 2024 Euan’s Guide Access Survey found that 47% of respondents are “very likely” to share their experiences of disabled access with others.
With more customers and reach, your business can benefit from increased revenue.
Improve Engagement for All Attendees
A significant percentage of attendees without hearing loss benefit from captions, especially in:
- Noisy conference environments
- Sessions with technical terminology
- Events with multiple accents or non-native English speakers
- Virtual and hybrid events
If you have gone to the trouble of putting a detailed event together, it makes sense for your attendees to get the most out of it engagement-wise.
And by improving engagement levels, you improve ROI.
Increase Knowledge Retention
It is well accepted across numerous studies that captions improve comprehension, attention, and memory.
Especially for training sessions, product launches, and corporate events, better retention increases the value attendees receive from the event, which in-turn raises the ROI.
Additionally, better retention also leads the audience to remember your event or brand more.
Avoid Negative PR
Just as positive news travels fast, negative news travels faster.
The Acquia survey report in 2024 outlined that if a disabled person has accessibility issues while using digital platforms or services offered by brands, they will talk about it.
Almost one-third (31%) would discuss the issue with family and friends. One in five respondents (20%) would share their experience on social media, so brand reputation could be impacted by word of mouth and social platforms.
Using live captions means you can avoid the negative PR, and therefore, ensure more people spend money at your future events for a positive ROI.
Mitigate Potential Financial Losses
Considering accessibility measures like live captions helps to ensure that there are no accessibility complaints, lawsuits, or legal costs under the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA).
The risk is generally higher where:
- The event is open to the public.
- An attendee requested captions in advance, and the request was denied or ignored.
- The event involves lengthy, complex, or important spoken information, where real-time captioning may be necessary for effective communication.
But you can mitigate any potential situation by providing live captions. Less legal fees and time spent dealing with complaints means a better ROI.
Live Captions Example: Training and Development
Live captions support engagement, learning, and retention, which leads to better learning outcomes and a safer, less risky business environment.
This is essential in situations where health and safety is involved. Ultimately, it could be the difference between an incident occurring, and it not. That means more money saved in the long run and your businesses reputation isn’t impacted.
Conclusion
From our expertise, it’s clear that the ROI of live captions for U.S. businesses is strong.
When you choose live captions, you also choose improved engagement and learning, more future customers, less negative PR and legal costs, and an expanded market share.
If you are curious about experiencing the ROI at your business, contact us today to discuss live captions in more detail.