Windows 10’s Ease of Access Part Three: Audio and Closed Captioning

Windows 10’s Ease of Access Part Three: Audio and Closed Captioning

Windows 10 has several nice options if you’re hearing impaired. But, even if you’re not hearing impaired the Hearing options in Ease of Access can make your computer easier to use without sound. In the Hearing/Audio section of Ease of Access, you can change the volume and change volume by app, turn on Mono sound, and visual alerts. In the Hearing/Closed captions section y0u can turn closed captioning on and off.

The hearing options are in Ease of Access. So let’s open Ease of Access in Settings the quick way – hold down the Windows Key and tap the U key. You can also go to Settings > Ease of Access. Once you’re in Ease of Access, you’ll find the “Hearing” section in the menu on the left. Under “Hearing” you’ll see “Audio” and “Closed captions”. Let’s start with “Audio”.

The Hearing / Audio Section in Ease of Access

In the Audio section. you can change your device’s volume, change the volume level for individual apps, access other sound settings (Control Panel), turn Mono sound on or off and turn Visual alerts on our off. Visual alerts take the place of Windows audio alerts and warn or notify you when you need to take action or when your attention is required.

Above: Audio options in the Hearing/Audio section of Ease of Access.

Above: The Visual alerts section expanded.

The Hearing / Closed Caption Section of Ease of Access

Closed captions make using your computer easier to use if you are hearing impaired or if you choose to turn off sounds on your computer, by displaying audio as text.

First, let’s open the Closed caption options under the Hearing section of Ease of Access.

You’ll see the Closed captions options open along with its settings.

Above: The Closed captions dialog in the Hearing section of Ease of Access.

Above:  An example of  changing the way captions look. You can change the font, font size, color, and background color of the captions to  your needs. See the screenshots below for available options to customize Closed captions.

Ease of Access has settings that everyone can use. The Hearing / Audio and Hearing / Captions section of Ease of Access is just another example of this.