Live captioning is required for any live, digital, public-facing event across the university (e.g., webinars, seminars, and town halls). Synchronous live captions can be integrated into Zoom or provided via a separate browser window for the end user. Live Captioning is a requestable service for university faculty and staff. Consider the following when determining if an event requires live captions:

• Class meetings are supported through accommodations from Services for Students with Disabilities. 
• Internal meetings for Virginia Tech employees may benefit from live captions, but may not require live captions unless requested as an accommodation. 
• Events that are exclusive to Virginia Tech students may benefit from live captions, but may not require live captions unless they are open to the entire campus or requested as an accommodation. 

This article covers live captioning for your event. For other types of captioning, please see:

• Captioning Services - Ordering Closed Captions, Live Captions, and Transcripts
  • Captioning Services - Ordering Live Captions
  • Captioning Services - Ordering Post Production Captions
  • Captioning Services - Ordering Transcripts

Contents

• Choosing a Caption Type
  
  • Free, machine-generated captions
  • Professional captions
• Captioning Costs
  
  • Free self-service
  • Centrally-funded
• Ordering Live Captions
• Getting Help

Choosing a Caption Type

Free, machine-generated captions

For events not required to use live human-transcribed captions, organizers are strongly encouraged to use Zoom's machine-generated captions and live transcripts feature. Machine-generated captions are not accurate enough to meet the legal obligations under the Americans with Disabilities Act.

Zoom, Google Slides, and Microsoft PowerPoint all include free live-captioning tools. See Free self-service below for instructions on using free live captions. 

Professional 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 72 hours in advance. Rush requests will be processed if there is a captionist available.

See Ordering Live Captions below for instructions on ordering live captioning for your event.

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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 live captioning tools: 

Centrally-funded

Captions and transcripts made by a human captionist are 99% accurate. They are ordered through a third-party vendor. The following event and recording types qualify for central funding: 

• Accommodations for students with disabilities.
• Recorded teaching materials (not recordings of live lectures) that will be used for multiple semesters.
• Live, digital, public-facing events across the university (e.g., webinars, seminars, and town halls).

Please note that the centralized fund cannot be used for events where attendees pay a registration fee. But, the cost of live captions can be billed back to the sponsoring organization. 

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Ordering Live Captions

• Submit a request through Services for Students with Disabilities for:
  
  • Accommodations for students with disabilities
• Submit a Captioning Services request form for:
  
  • Accommodations for faculty/staff
  • Captions for public-facing digital events such as webinars, seminars, and town halls

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Getting Help

• For help with accommodations for students with disabilities, contact Services for Students with Disabilities. 
• For help determining whether your captions qualify for central funding, submit the Captioning Services request form. 
• For help determining whether your event or recording requires captioning, submit the  Captioning Services request form. 
• For help ordering and editing machine-generated captions, see Editing Captions.
• For any other question about captioning, go to the 4Help Portal and click Get Help.

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