The Accessibility and Technology team has identified a service that can provide captioning for videos. They currently charge $162 per content hour ($2.70 per minute) for transcript and caption files and offer over 40 output types.
The Way the Service Works
You either establish an account with the vendor directly or you work with ITSS and they will use their account with the vendor, and charge back to your department. You provide digital video files to the vendor (either directly or through ITSS) and transcripts if available. The vendor sends back captioned video in your preferred file type. They generally are able to turn around the files in a few working days, although at busy times it will be slower and you can pay a premium for a quicker turnaround.
If Disability Resources is aware that you have a student in your class who needs captioning, you will be alerted and an ITSS staff member will follow up with you to determine your needs and work with you. Funding will be provided to cover the cost of captioning in these situations. If you become aware of a student in your course who needs captioning as an accommodation, please contact ITSS immediately. Mary Olson-Reed or Jason Davis.
Learn more about the vendor at CaptionSync.
Departments are welcome to establish their own accounts with this service or they can work with ITSS for help. Contact Mary Olson-Reed or Jason Davis for help, or - create an account with the vendor for yourself by filling out a CaptionSync Account Sign Up Form.
Why Caption?
Benefits People with Hearing Disabilities
People who are deaf or hard of hearing are not able to directly access auditory information. Captioning provides a lifeline by displaying audio content on screen as synchronized text.
A #captionTHIS day video demonstrates the need for captioning.
Benefits a Variety of People and Situations
Captions are beneficial to a wide variety of people and situations. They:
- Can be read by people who benefit from seeing and hearing words together such as people with certain learning disabilities, or visual learners or English language learners.
- Provide access where sound isn't allowed, in situations, users may not be able to access audio on their computers, such as labs without speakers.
- Are searchable, allowing people to search media files for a topic of interest.
- Compensate for noisy backgrounds or for poor audio quality. 1
- Clarify when the language is heavily accented. 1
- Make words clearer when a person is unfamiliar with the subject terminology. 1
- Users who are deaf or hard of hearing will not be able to directly access auditory information.
Complies with University Policy
University of Minnesota Policy T6 states that captioning is to be synchronized with the audio, and audio/video content.
Policy on Captioning of Video states that captioning of online video is required in the following situations:
- Uncaptioned videos create a barrier to instructional material for a student who has a disability (documented with Disability Resources) which would be accommodated by captioning.
- The video is being shared in an unrestricted way.
1. Dietrich, G. & Johnson, J. (2007) DVD Captioning with Adobe Encore at AHEAD 2007 [PowerPoint slides].
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