Fact · Accessibility and health
7 to 12seconds of typical TV caption delay
The same 2026 survey found that caption latency, the delay between speech and text, significantly affects the viewer experience, especially the 7 to 12 second delays typical of live TV.
Checked against its source on October 16, 2026
In the source's own words
“caption latencies significantly impact the viewer experience, especially typical 7-12-second TV delays.”
Are Caption Metrics Broken? Latency, Deaf and Hard of Hearing User Ratings, and Bias across Technologies, Bernard Thompson et al., arXiv (preprint), accepted for ACM ASSETS 2026, 2026, Abstract.
Open the original- What it measures
- The study also tested automatic captions with an average two-second delay, against captions with the typical 7 to 12 second broadcast delay.
- What it does not show
- The evidence is from television viewers watching recorded clips, not from people reading captions on glasses or in face-to-face talk. It supports treating delay as a main factor in usability.