Live Captions and Hearing Accessibility on a Mac

If you're deaf or hard of hearing, or you often work with the sound off, your Mac can show speech as text, flash the screen for alerts and tailor its audio to your hearing.

You'll find these features under Apple menu > System Settings > Accessibility, in the Hearing section.

Live Captions shows a transcript of whatever your Mac is playing: a video call, a podcast, an online video. It can also caption a conversation in the room, using the Mac's microphone.

To turn it on:

1. Open System Settings > Accessibility > Live Captions.
2. Turn on Live Captions.

A caption window appears on screen. Drag it wherever suits you.

Good to know:

• It needs a Mac with Apple silicon and a recent version of macOS.
• It's available in a limited set of languages and regions, and Apple adds more over time. If the option isn't there, your language or Mac may not be supported yet.
• Captions are produced on your Mac. The audio isn't sent to Apple.
• Accuracy varies. Don't rely on it for medical, legal or emergency situations.

Options on the same page:

• Font, size and colours. Make the captions easier to read.
• Live Captions in FaceTime. Captions appear inside FaceTime calls, labelled by speaker.

In the caption window, click the microphone button to caption people speaking near you. Click pause to stop captions temporarily.

To show subtitles whenever a video offers them:

1. Go to System Settings > Accessibility > Captions (called Subtitles & Captioning on some versions).
2. Turn on Prefer closed captions and SDH.

SDH stands for "subtitles for the deaf and hard of hearing". These include sounds such as [door slams] and speaker names.

On the same page, choose a caption style, or create your own with a larger font and a solid background.

This works in Apple's apps, such as the TV app and Safari's video player. Streaming services like YouTube and Netflix have their own subtitle buttons in the player.

If you might miss the Mac's alert sound:

1. Go to System Settings > Accessibility > Audio.
2. Turn on Flash the screen when an alert sound occurs.

The whole screen flashes briefly when your Mac beeps.

If you hear better in one ear, or use a single earbud, stereo sound can leave you missing part of the audio.

In Accessibility > Audio, turn on Play stereo audio as mono. Both channels are now played in each ear.

To shift the volume towards one ear, go to System Settings > Sound > Output and drag the Balance slider.

Background sounds plays a steady sound, such as rain, ocean or white noise. It can mask distracting noise and help you focus. Some people with tinnitus also find it soothing.

1. In Accessibility > Audio, turn on Background sounds.
2. Choose a sound and set its volume.
3. Choose whether it carries on while other audio is playing.

• Hearing devices. Some Macs can pair directly with Made for iPhone hearing aids. Look under Accessibility > Hearing Devices. Whether it works depends on your Mac model and your hearing aids.
• Headphone accommodations. With supported AirPods and Beats headphones, you can tune the audio to boost soft sounds and certain frequencies.

Sounds are easy to miss, so make notifications stay on screen:

1. Go to System Settings > Notifications.
2. Click an app, such as Messages or Calendar.
3. Change the alert style to Persistent (called Alerts on some versions). The notification stays until you dismiss it.

Start with Live Captions if your Mac supports it, and turn on Flash the screen so you never miss an alert. Both take under a minute to set up.