Munich – November 09, 2026 -- No video carries a verified subtitle track at 36 of 50 medical technology companies examined, or 72%, according to an audit by purple.audio, the transcription platform of Spotwatch GmbH.
Only 34 of 578 product and training videos carry checked subtitles
Across 578 videos on products, applications and training, 34 (5.9%) have a verified subtitle track. Another 155 run on unverified machine-generated text, and 389 have no subtitle track at all.
None of the 885 videos reviewed has a detectable audio description track.
Company-run players omit subtitles in 325 of 346 spoken-word videos
In companies' own video players, the subtitle track is missing from 325 of 346 videos containing speech. In 283 of 497 cases, the page code lacked even the control for switching subtitles on.
Automatic captions also garble technical terms. On YouTube, the product name VENTRIX became "Wentrixmodul" and EKG became "EK". A body temperature of 37.5 degrees Celsius was rendered as "auf,5° Csus".
Ralf Zmölnig, managing director of Spotwatch, argues that for devices where misoperation has consequences, unverified machine text is no solution, whereas verified text is.
Fines of up to EUR 100,000 apply under Section 37 of the accessibility law
The Barrierefreiheitsstärkungsgesetz (BFSG) covers services for consumers. Companies that serve end customers online fall under it, including their websites and videos. Section 37 permits fines of up to EUR 100,000.
The market surveillance authority in Magdeburg has operated since September 2025. According to public statements, it has received almost 700 reports.
Audit covers 84 websites of Germany's 100 largest medtech companies
The 885 videos were checked on 84 websites of the 100 largest medical technology companies in Germany, based on the Meyer Industry Research 2025 ranking. purple.audio describes the work as an inventory, not a study.