The Subtitle Effect: What 7,000 People Just Taught Us About Accessibility
Last month, a Threads poll by kate_happens got my attention right away.
The question was simple: Do you regularly watch TV and movies with subtitles on? Of course I had to participate because hello! I’m deaf and have always relied on captioning/subtitles my entire life.
Nearly 7,000 people voted. And here's how it shook out:
65% said always.
26% said sometimes.
9% said never.
That means nearly 91% of people use captions at least some of the time.
Fun fact: this is a feature that was built as an accommodation for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing community is now the default for the majority and the people who never touch it are the outliers.
The results of the poll didn’t really surprise me. I was actually more curious about what people would say in the comments.
"She's over there," not "cheese covered bears"
Over a thousand people replied explaining why they use captions, and I read through them like it was my job. (It kind of is.)
Some people are Deaf or hard of hearing. Some have tinnitus, or Ménière's disease, or wear hearing aids and still can't catch dialogue over a movie score. That's the audience captions were built for, and they were there in force.
But they were nowhere near the majority. The rest of the thread sounded like this:
"Sound mixing is terrible in a lot of modern TV shows and movies." (This complaint came up over and over. Whisper-quiet dialogue, wall-rattling explosions, repeat.)
"I have ADHD and can't always process what is being said."
"I have three kids. I started turning on subtitles because it was hard to hear over their noise."
"English is my second language."
"I watch a lot of Korean dramas."
"My snacks crunch too loudly." (Totally a valid response.)
My favorite comment came from someone who grew up not knowing auditory processing disorders existed. They just thought they weren't paying attention. With captions, they finally realized characters were saying "she's over there" and not "cheese covered bears."
And then there was the person who lives with a Deaf housemate, so the captions are always on at home. Their comment? "I miss them now if I'm watching somewhere else."
This shows me that sometimes when a feature isn’t asked for it becomes a feature they can't live without.
This isn't just one poll
National research backs up what Kate's comment section already knew. A 2025 AP-NORC poll found that a third of U.S. adults always or often use subtitles — and among adults under 45, nearly 70% use them at least sometimes. A YouGov survey found that 63% of adults under 30 prefer watching TV with subtitles on, even in a language they speak fluently.
Among people who use captions, only about 30% say it's because of hearing difficulty.
The other 70% are using an accessibility feature for reasons that have nothing to do with disability.
Comprehension.
Focus.
Accents.
Loud households.
Bad speakers.
Multitasking.
Life.
Every accessibility feature has a subtitle effect
Captions didn't become mainstream because everyone suddenly lost their hearing. They became mainstream because the feature was useful. Once people tried it, they kept it.
Here's the thing, though. Captions have one advantage that almost no other accessibility feature has: a button. There's a toggle. People can opt in, which means researchers can count them, which means we get satisfying poll numbers like 65%.
Color contrast doesn't have a toggle.
Alt text doesn't have a toggle.
A logical heading structure doesn't have a toggle.
Nobody "turns on" readable text, they either can read your website, your emails, and your course materials, or they quietly leave.
And they do leave without telling you. Research on disabled online shoppers found that only 8% ever contact a business about the barriers they hit. The rest just click away and spend their money somewhere easier.
So when someone tells me accessibility only matters to a small group of people, I call bullshit.
The demand for captions looked like a small tool; right up until there was a way to measure it. The demand for readable contrast, described images, and content that makes sense out loud is just as real. It just doesn't have a button to press, so it never shows up in a poll.
It shows up in your bounce rate instead.
What this means for your business
If you're a content creator or small business owner, the subtitle effect is working on your audience right now:
The subscriber reading your email on their phone, in the sun, squinting at light gray text.
The customer whose email app blocks images by default, they’ll either see your alt text, or see nothing.
The student skimming your course page the same way a screen reader user navigates it: heading by heading.
The 40-something whose eyes have started doing that thing 40-something eyes do.
None of these people identify as disabled. All of them benefit when you build accessibly. And most of them will never, ever tell you why they left.
Accessibility isn't a checkbox for a small group of people. It's captions, before captions were cool.
Want to know what your website or emails look like to the 91%?
Successible is a Chrome extension that works like spellcheck for accessibility. It flags issues like low contrast, missing alt text, and skipped headings in plain language, right while you work.
