BackgroundCaptioning TerminologyWhen Is Captioning Required?Ordering Captions |
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Captions and transcripts are a text alternative to audio providing viewers with an additional way to access content. Captions improve comprehension by removing common miscommunications stemming from variations in:
Captioning video content is an essential part of creating high quality educational resources that improve engagement, comprehension, and student learning outcomes.
Captioning terminology can be confusing. The terms we use casually aren’t necessarily correct! For example:
Below is a complete list of captioning terms and definitions:
|
Term |
Definition |
|
Closed Captions |
Closed captions are a text alternative to video that can be enabled or disabled by an end user. They are synchronized to the speech and include all noises, music and speech. |
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Subtitles |
Subtitles refer to a text alternative to video that can be enabled or disabled by an end user. They are synchronized to the speech and generally only include spoken words. |
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Open Captions |
Open captions are a text alternative that is "always on" and cannot be disabled by an end user, such as might be displayed during a live performance. They are synchronized to the speech. |
|
Live Captions |
Live captions are a real time, text alternative to video that can be streamed in real time to users either through the closed caption functionality of a video conferencing tool or in a separate browser window. The delay between the speech and captions is generally 10-20 seconds. Zoom has an embedded live-captioning feature. |
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Post-Production Captions |
Post-production captions are created for a video that has already been recorded. |
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Machine-Generated Captions (also known as Automatic Speech Recognition, “ASR”) |
Machine-generated captions, also known as machine captions, are created by technology that converts spoken words to text and are up to 90% accurate. Machine-generated captions can be either live or post-production. Machine-generated captions for publicly-shared recordings or recordings for coursework should be edited for accuracy using the Captioning Key Guidelines. Zoom, My Media, YouTube and other services include machine-generated captioning tools. |
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Human Captionist |
Captions made by a human captionist are up to 99% accurate and can be either live or post-production. Virginia Tech uses third-party vendors for human captioning. Central funding is available for approved requests. |
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Professional Captions |
Professional captions are created by a third-party vendor using human captionists and are up to 99% accurate. Central funding is available for approved requests. |
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Transcripts |
Transcripts are a text alternative to audio that is typically not synchronized with an audio recording. They are usually provided as separate documents. Zoom and My Media have a transcript tool. |
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Interactive Transcripts |
An interactive transcript is a transcript that acts like a link. Selecting the text in the transcript will cause the video or audio playback to move to that location. Interactive transcripts are typically searchable. Videos in My Media and Media Gallery can have interactive transcripts. |
Captions must be available for:
Transcripts must be available for:
Captions and transcripts should be available for:
Captions and transcripts can be available for:
Transcripts can be available for:
To ensure that other accessibility needs are not overlooked during university-sponsored live events, we recommend organizers Include an event accessibility statement to allow registrants to state their accommodation needs. See the Office for Equity and Accessibility's Practices and Policies.
Zoom, Google Slides, and Microsoft PowerPoint all include free live-captioning tools. Webcaptioner is a stand-alone tool.
See Free self-service below for instructions on ordering free live captions.
If you’re not sure if (1) your event requires 99% accurate captioning or (2) if it qualifies for central captioning funding, submit the Captioning Services request form to discuss it with a captioning specialist. Please note that live captioning requests should be made 48 hours in advance. Rush requests will be processed if there is a captionist available.
If you’re not sure if (1) your video requires 99% accurate captioning or (2) if it qualifies for central captioning funding, submit the Captioning Services request form to discuss it with a captioning specialist. Please note that the default turnaround time for post-production captioning is 5 business days.
See Free self-service below for instructions on ordering free captions.
Use My Media/Media Gallery’s captioning tool to generate an interactive transcript. Transcripts can be copied into other documents. See Captioning Videos in Video Content Management - How to Use My Media and Media Gallery (for Instructors).
For research-related recordings, the IRB determines which transcription service you can use. Please contact your IRB liaison for more information.
All available free captioning tools create machine-generated captions. Accuracy typically does not reach 90%. Machine-generated captions for publicly-shared recordings or recordings for coursework should be edited for accuracy using the Captioning Key Guidelines.
Below is a table of approved, free captioning tools:
|
Captioning Technology (all machine-generated) |
Caption Type |
Includes Caption Editor |
Instructions |
|
Zoom Cloud recordings* |
Post-production |
Yes |
|
|
My Media/Media Gallery (Kaltura) Captions |
Post-production |
Yes |
|
|
Zoom Closed Captions & Live Transcript |
Live captions |
No |
|
|
YouTube |
Post-production |
Yes |
|
|
WebCaptioner |
Live captions |
No |
|
|
Google Slides |
Live captions |
No |
|
|
MS PowerPoint 365 |
Live captions |
No |
*All Zoom Cloud recordings are automatically captioned when they are moved to the meeting host’s My Media. The host can hide the captions while they are being edited.
Captions and transcripts made by a human captionist are are 99% accurate. They are ordered through a third-party vendor. The following event and recording types qualify for central funding:
If your event or recording does not qualify for central funding, costs are as follows (billed to department fund code):
For human subjects research, the IRB determines which transcription service your research should use. Please contact your IRB liaison for more information.