Most agencies post meeting recordings, and more of them are asking how to add subtitles for meeting videos without a separate captioning job. The short answer is an SRT subtitle file, and if you caption your meetings live, you may already have one.
What an SRT file is
SRT (SubRip Subtitle) is a plain text format that almost every video player and video platform understands. It is a list of numbered blocks. Each block has:
- A number.
- A start and end time, like 00:12:04,500 --> 00:12:07,900.
- One or two lines of text to show during that time.
That's it. Because the file is just text with timestamps, you can open it in any text editor, fix a misspelled name, save it, and upload it again. The video itself is not changed. The player reads the SRT file and shows the text on top of the video.
Subtitles from an SRT file are usually closed captions: viewers turn them on or off and often pick a language. That is different from open captions, which are always shown, like the chamber screen during a live meeting. See open captions vs. closed captions.
Why recorded meetings need subtitles
Live captions help people watching in real time, but many residents watch later. Subtitles on the recording help residents who are deaf or hard of hearing, people watching without sound, and residents who read another language more easily than they follow spoken English.
There is also an accessibility rule to keep in mind. The DOJ's ADA Title II web rule (April 2024) requires state and local government web content and mobile apps to meet WCAG 2.1 Level AA. WCAG 2.1 success criterion 1.2.2, Captions (Prerecorded), Level A, calls for captions on prerecorded video, which includes posted meeting recordings. Success criterion 1.2.4, Captions (Live), Level AA, covers live audio.
In April 2026, DOJ extended the compliance dates by one year: April 26, 2027 for public entities with a population of 50,000 or more, and April 26, 2028 for smaller entities and special districts. The extension doesn't change the standard, and the ADA's general obligations still apply. The rule also has exceptions, including for certain archived content, so check with your city attorney or county counsel about which recordings are covered. Our ADA Title II deadlines article has more.
Getting SRT files from your live captions
If you use SentraCaptions for live captions, you get SRT files as a byproduct. After the meeting, transcripts are available in every language you captioned or translated, as TXT or SRT files. In practice:
- The English SRT gives you subtitles that match what residents saw live.
- Each translated SRT gives you subtitles in that language, for up to 8 languages per meeting.
- Paused time (recess, closed session) is not captioned or stored, so it won't appear in the file.
These are AI subtitles: automatic captions, not a human transcript. They may contain errors, and translation quality varies by language.
A simple workflow for posting subtitled recordings
- Download the SRT files after the meeting.
- Spot-check the English file. Search for council member names, item numbers and motions. Fix any errors in a text editor.
- Check the timing. If your posted video was trimmed at the start (for example, a pre-meeting slate was cut), the subtitles may need to be shifted to match. Most video editors and many platforms can offset a subtitle file.
- Review key translations. Ask a fluent speaker to read through the languages that matter most to your community.
- Upload the SRT files to your video platform or player, labeled by language.
- Add recurring fixes to your glossary so the next meeting's captions spell local names right. See building a caption glossary.
If you use CivicCA, transcripts and subtitle files can go with the meeting video, so they are available where residents already find agendas and recordings.
Tips for cleaner subtitles
- Start with good audio. Most subtitle errors start with a muffled or off-mic speaker. See chamber audio tips.
- Keep the live and recorded versions aligned. Record from the same encoder feed you send to captions so timing stays close.
- Don't edit the meaning. Fix spellings and obvious errors, but keep what was said. Subtitles are not minutes, and a cleaned-up transcript shouldn't read like one.
- Label automatic subtitles. A short note on the video page that subtitles are automatic and may contain errors sets fair expectations, just as the live screens do.
What about YouTube?
If you stream to YouTube Live, SentraCaptions can send captions in one language to the stream, because YouTube shows one caption language per stream. For the archived video, you can upload additional SRT files in other languages afterward. See YouTube Live captions for meetings.