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Captioning�Fundamentals

Megan Mock (she/her)

Elle Kartchner (she/her)

CU Boulder Digital Accessibility Office (DAO)

bit.ly/captioning-summer

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Elle Kartchner

Accessible Media Specialist
Just graduated from CU Boulder with a BS in Creative Technology & Design
Started as a student employee at the DAO in September of 2022
Fun fact: My first career was hosting at a 5-star restaurant in Denver!

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Megan Mock

Assistant Director of Captioning and Services
Higher education experience since 2015; have worked in student advising, student affairs, disability services, and accessibility services
Started my CU Boulder career in March of 2023
Fun fact: My first career was in retail and fashion merchandising!

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Presentation Agenda

Concepts and Terminology
Quality and Standards
Planning for Events and Content
Captioning Logistics at CU Boulder
Contact and Resources
Discussion and Questions

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Concepts and Terminology

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What Are Captions?

Time-synchronized, text-based representation of the audio in a video.
Reflect dialogue/spoken content, sound description, and music description.
If a video has no audio, that should be reflected in the captions.

Example formatting: [NO AUDIO]

An essential component to ensuring video media is accessible.
Who uses captions?

People with disabilities, language learners, people with personal situational needs, students using searchable text for coursework purposes.

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Common Terminology

Transcripts and Captions
Auto-Generated Captions and Human-Edited Captions
Live Captions and Post-Production Captions
Open Captions and Closed Captions

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Transcripts and Captions

Transcripts

Text-based version of the audio contained in a video or audio file.
Should be provided for audio-only content (example: podcasts).
Can also be provided for video content.
Common formats: HTML, downloadable files like Word or PDF

Interactive transcripts are a common feature for video platforms.

Captions

A transcript, but the text is timed to display with audio while playing a video.
Should be provided for video content.
Common file types: SRT, VTT

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Auto-Generated Captions and Human-Edited Captions

Auto-Generated Captions

Captions are generated using automated speech recognition (ASR) technology.
Most video players feature ASR technology to automatically generate captions for video content.
Lower accuracy rate.

Human-Edited Captions

Auto-generated captions that have been edited by a human.
Standard process used by vendors, accessibility professionals, and content creators to ensure captions meet accessibility standards.
Higher accuracy rate.

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Live Captions and Post-Production Captions

Live Captions

Synchronous and created/generated in real-time.
Sometimes called Communication Access Realtime Translation (CART), C-Print, or Real-time Captioning (RTC).
Lower expected accuracy, varied lengths of delay.

Post-Production Captions (PPC)

Created/generated after a video is recorded and if applicable, edits are completed.
When PPC are human-edited, should be highly accurate.

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Open Captions and Closed Captions

Open Captions

Always visible, cannot be turned off.
Sometimes called "burned in" or "hard-coded."
Cannot adjust caption appearance.

Closed Captions

Can be turned on and off by the viewer.
A separate file that is added to the video.
Depending on the video platform or caption file type used, viewers may be able to adjust the appearance.

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Quality and Standards

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Auto-Generated Captions: A Story in Four Pictures

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Auto-Generated Captions

Auto-generated captions are a start, but not accurate enough to meet accessibility standards and ensure equitable access.
Common issues:

Missing speaker identification
Missing sound and music description
Grammatical and spelling errors

How do errors affect your content?¹

Decreases reading comprehension
Poorly reflects your branding
Lack of compliance with standards (FCC, DCMP, and WCAG)
Alters content meaning
Makes content inaccessible

¹https://www.3playmedia.com/blog/caption-quality/

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Captioning Quality Standards

The Described and Captioned Media Program (DCMP) offers resources and recommendations for providing accessible media, with a specific focus on education.

DCMP's Captioning Key is an extensive resource for equitably captioning educational content.

Technical, technique, and style guidance.
Widely used by higher education accessibility professionals.
DAO's Captioning Quality Guidelines are adapted from the Captioning Key.

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Captioning Key – Elements of Quality Captioning

DCMP has identified 5 main Elements of Quality Captioning

Accurate: Errorless captions are the goal for each production.
Consistent: Uniformity in style and presentation of all captioning features is crucial for viewer understanding.
Clear: A complete textual representation of the audio, including speaker identification and non-speech information, provides clarity.
Readable: Captions are displayed with enough time to be read completely, are in synchronization with the audio, and are not obscured by (nor do they obscure) the visual content.
Equal: Equal access requires that the meaning and intention of the material is completely preserved.

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Planning for Events and Content

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Captioning Planning for Events - Live

Live Events

When to provide human-edited live captions:

Registration is not required, or,
An attendee has requested live captions as an accommodation.

When to provide auto-generated live captions:

Registration is required, and,
The registration form includes information about requesting accommodations, and,
No one has requested live captions as an accommodation.
Caution! Auto-generated live caption quality varies greatly.

Applicable for in-person, hybrid, and virtual events.

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Captioning Planning for Events - Post

After the Event

If a recording of your event will be hosted online, human-edited post-production captions should be provided.
Option 1: Submit the recording to a vendor to create captions.
Option 2: Edit auto-generated captions on the video platform.

Example: Upload the recording to YouTube. YouTube's platform will provide auto-generated captions. Then edit the captions for accuracy within YouTube's caption editor.

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Captioning Planning for Post-Production Content

Would anyone like to share how they plan for and/or implement captioning into their content workflow?

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Ways DAO Can Support Your Post-Production Planning

Facilitate captioning or transcription of audio/video media with a contracted vendor.
Assess whether our team can create captions for your content.

We have a small team that works to create captions in-house to help advance captioning compliance across campus; plans for continued growth to provide more support.

Consult with individuals or teams about captioning process, workflow, and content needs.
Provide training and resources to help the campus community understand and fulfill captioning responsibilities to align with campus policy.