Captioning Services - Ordering Closed Captions, Live Captions, and Transcripts


Introduction

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. 

Contents

Instructions

Captioning Terminology

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.

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.

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. 

Post-Production Captions

Post-production captions are created for a video that has already been recorded. 

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. Good audio is required for more accurate captioning.

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. 

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. 

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.

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. 

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. 

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Virginia Tech is proud to commit to inclusive media for faculty, staff, students, and all audiences who consume video/audio content across our digital platforms. By proactively considering the need for captions, the university aligns efforts with legal requirements. These include the Americans with Disabilities Act (as amended) including Title II of the Americans with Disabilities Act (as amended), Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973, and Section 508 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 as required by Virginia State Law. Additionally, captions support Virginia Tech’s Keep C.A.L.M and Caption-On campaign. By making closed captioning a priority, we successfully meet Web Content Accessibility Guidelines 2.0 (WCAG) criterion 1.2.2. and further demonstrate commitment to IT Accessibility Policy 7215.

For all of these reasons, Virginia Tech requires that all public-facing videos and live events produced by the university include captioning. Captioning provides universal benefit to increase engagement and message clarity and aligns with Virginia Tech’s commitment to inclusion and access as outlined in the Virginia Tech Difference - Advancing Beyond Boundaries. This commitment has been endorsed by senior leaders across the university, resulting in the allocation of centralized funds to provide both live and post-production closed-captions to advance the university mission.

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When Is Captioning Required?

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:

Supporting live events

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 for more information. 

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Ordering Captions

To learn how to order live captions, see Captioning Services - Ordering Live Captions.

To learn how to order post-production captions, see Captioning Services - Ordering Post-Production Captions.

To learn how to order transcripts, see Captioning Services - Ordering Transcripts.

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Captioning Costs

Free self-service

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

Captioning Videos

My Media/Media Gallery (Kaltura) Captions

Post-production

Yes

Captioning Videos

Zoom Closed Captions & Live Transcript

Live captions

No

Zoom closed captioning and live transcription

YouTube

Post-production

Yes

YouTube Subtitles

Google Slides

Live captions

No

Google Slides

MS PowerPoint 365

Live captions

No

MS PowerPoint 365

*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. 

Centrally-funded

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: 

Getting Help

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