Use a screen reader to add subtitles or captions to your microsoft stream video

Screen reader content

This article is for people with visual impairments who use a screen reader program with the Office products and is part of the Office Accessibility content set. For more general help, see Microsoft Support home.

Use Microsoft Stream with your keyboard and a screen reader to insert subtitles or captions to your video. We have tested it with Narrator, JAWS, and NVDA, but it might work with other screen readers as long as they follow common accessibility standards and techniques.

Notes: 

• If you use Narrator with the Windows 10 Fall Creators Update, you have to turn off scan mode in order to edit documents, spreadsheets, or presentations with Office for the web. For more information, refer to Turn off virtual or browse mode in screen readers in Windows 10 Fall Creators Update.

• New Microsoft 365 features are released gradually to Microsoft 365 subscribers, so your app might not have these features yet. To learn how you can get new features faster, join the Office Insider program.

• To learn more about screen readers, go to How screen readers work with Microsoft Office.

• When you use Microsoft Stream, we recommend that you use Microsoft Edge as your web browser and Narrator as your screen reader.

  If you use Chrome or Firefox as your web browser, we recommend that you use JAWS or NVDA as your screen reader.

In this topic

• Generate automatic captions

• Upload a subtitle or caption file

  • Upload a caption file

  • Upload a subtitle file

Generate automatic captions

Microsoft Stream can automatically generate captions for your video if the following requirements are met:

• Video Language is set to English or Spanish (no other languages are currently supported).

• The video is in MP4 or WMV format.

Note: You can't autogenerate captions if you have already uploaded a caption file.

1. In Microsoft Stream, navigate to and open the video you want to add automatic captions to.

2. Press the Tab key until you hear "More actions," and press Enter.

3. Press the Down arrow key until you hear "Update video details," and press Enter.

4. Press the Tab key until you reach the Video Language combo box. You hear the currently selected language. If you need to change the language, press Alt+Down arrow key to open the menu, press the Down arrow key until you find the language you want, and press Enter.

5. Press the Tab key until you hear: "Autogenerate a caption file, check box." If the check box is unselected, press Spacebar to select it.

6. Press Shift+Tab until you hear "Apply, button," and press Enter.

Microsoft Stream begins to generate the captions. They take some time to create, up to twice the video's duration. For example, for a one hour video, expect to wait approximately two hours to finish processing.

Upload a subtitle or caption file

Your video can have one caption file, and one subtitle file per language. The files must use the VTT format.

Notes: 

• You can't upload a caption file if you have selected to generate automatic captions. You can still upload a subtitle file.

• If your video has both a caption file and one or more subtitle files, they cannot have the same file name.

Upload a caption file

1. In Microsoft Stream, navigate to and open the video you want to add captions to.

2. Press the Tab key until you hear "More actions," and press Enter.

3. Press the Down arrow key until you hear "Update video details," and press Enter.

4. Press the Tab key until you hear "Upload a caption file, button," and press Enter. The Captions dialog box opens.

5. Press the Tab key until you hear "Select file, button," and press Enter. A standard Windows Open dialog box opens.

6. Move between the elements of the Open dialog box with the Tab key and navigate inside the elements with the arrow keys. When you have navigated to the right caption file, press Alt+O to select it. The focus returns to the Captions dialog box.

7. Press the Tab key until you hear "OK, button," and press Enter.

8. Press Shift+Tab until you hear "Apply, button," and press Enter.

Upload a subtitle file

1. In Microsoft Stream, navigate to and open the video you want to add subtitles to.

2. Press the Tab key until you hear "More actions," and press Enter.

3. Press the Down arrow key until you hear "Update video details," and press Enter.

4. Press the Tab key until you hear "Upload a subtitle file, button," and press Enter. The Subtitles dialog box opens.

5. Press the Tab key until you hear "Select a language, combo box," and press Alt+Down arrow key to open the menu. Press the Down arrow key until you find the language you want, and press Enter.

6. Press the Tab key until you hear "Select file, button," and press Enter. A standard Windows Open dialog box opens.

7. Move between the elements of the Open dialog box with the Tab key and navigate inside the elements with the arrow keys. When you have navigated to the right subtitle file, press Alt+O to select it. The focus returns to the Subtitles dialog box.

8. Press the Tab key until you hear "OK, button," and press Enter.

9. Press Shift+Tab until you hear "Apply, button," and press Enter.

See also

Use a screen reader to play videos in Microsoft Stream

Use a screen reader to upload and manage your videos in Microsoft Stream

Use a screen reader to find content in Microsoft Stream

Keyboard shortcuts in Microsoft Stream

Basic tasks using a screen reader with Stream

Use a screen reader to explore and navigate Stream

Technical support for customers with disabilities

Microsoft wants to provide the best possible experience for all our customers. If you have a disability or questions related to accessibility, please contact the Microsoft Disability Answer Desk for technical assistance. The Disability Answer Desk support team is trained in using many popular assistive technologies and can offer assistance in English, Spanish, French, and American Sign Language. Please go to the Microsoft Disability Answer Desk site to find out the contact details for your region.

If you are a government, commercial, or enterprise user, please contact the enterprise Disability Answer Desk.