There have already been requests for automatic live captions on Twitch dating back to 2022 and 2023. However, deaf and hard-of-hearing viewers still frequently encounter streams without captions because caption availability often depends on the individual streamer setting them up.

In 2026, real-time speech recognition technology has advanced significantly. I believe it is time for Twitch to reconsider built-in automatic live captions as a platform-wide accessibility feature.

Twitch could automatically generate captions from the spoken audio of a livestream and allow each viewer to enable or disable them using the CC button. Streamers should not need to install an extension or additional software for basic accessibility.

Automatic captions do not need to be perfect. Even with occasional transcription errors, they can make a major difference compared with having no captions at all.

This is especially important for deaf and hard-of-hearing viewers, who should not have to ask individual streamers to provide captions or depend on other viewers to explain what is being said.

Twitch already has a diverse global community. Built-in automatic captions would be an important step toward making live content accessible to more people.

Please reconsider automatic live captions as a native Twitch accessibility feature in 2026.