Impact: High
Effort: Medium

Video captions consist of text displayed on the screen to communicate the audio or spoken portion of a video. The text appears on the screen at the same time as the words being spoken. Captioning can be extremely helpful to students with hearing disabilities and students for whom English is a second language. It benefits all listeners when the lecturer has a pronounced accent or when a recorded classroom session includes ambient noise.

Rating

Video captioning comes with a cost, usually requiring the use of specialized software or the hiring of a service provider. In addition, a staff person’s time may be needed to ensure accuracy of the final product. Thus, we rated it as a medium effort task.

Example

There are many examples of captioned video on YouTube. Take a look at this video about the French Revolution. It is part of a series from the Khan Academy.

More Information

• To add captions to Panopto videos you create at Pitt, read the article, Best Practices for Adding Captions to Your Panopto Videos.
• The WebAIM article on Captions, Transcripts, and Audio Descriptions provides a comprehensive overview of accessibility mechanisms for video.
• Adding Subtitles and Captions to your YouTube Video
• Add Captions to your Zoom video
• Request form for a captioned/transcribed video
• ASL/CART Request Form