Formatted Error Rate (FER) vs Word Error Rate: Caption Quality Metrics Explained
· 6 min read
Procurement officers and accessibility coordinators evaluating captioning vendors often see claims of "99% accuracy" or "WER under 1%." But caption quality involves more than word-level accuracy. Formatted Error Rate (FER) and Word Error Rate (WER) measure different aspects of caption quality. Understanding both metrics helps you specify the right quality requirements in RFPs and evaluate vendor performance. This guide explains the technical definitions, when each metric applies, and what to request from vendors.