Captions, which are text versions of the spoken word in videos, allow the content of video to be accessible to those who are deaf or hard of hearing. Captions benefit not only those with hearing impairments, but also people for whom English is a second language, people who learn by receiving information in multiple formats, and people who may be doing work/watching videos in public/noisy settings.
In order to meet accessibility standards, captions must be 99% accurate. This degree of accuracy can be achieved by editing automated (ASR) captions or by contracting with a third-party captioning provider.
There are many options available for captioning content at Pitt, and certain options are better/recommended for certain scenarios. Below we summarize the most common scenarios and their corresponding captioning options.
- Non-Academic Videos
Recorded video made publicly available
Contact the Pitt 24/7 IT Help Desk, to request and complete a Panopto Captioning Request Form, and return it to the Pitt 24/7 IT Help Desk. Caption cost is to be paid by the requesting school, office, or department.
- Live Webinars, Discussions, & Forums
Live event (Zoom or Teams) - accommodation request for captioned media
Complete the live captioning request form to receive live professional captioning (CART) by third-party vendor (3Play Media). Live captioning cost is to be paid by the requesting school, office, or department.
Live event (Zoom or Teams) - no accommodation request for captioned media
Enable Zoom or Teams live captioning/transcription at the start of event. Remind participants how they can turn on/off the captions.
- Class Lecture
Live class (Zoom or Teams), student with a documented accommodation request for captioned media
- Disability Resources and Services consults with faculty.
- Live professional captioning (CART) provided by third-party vendor (3Play Media).
Recorded class, student with a documented accommodation request for captioned media
- Disability Resources and Services consults with faculty.
- Videos sent via Panopto to third-party vendor (3Play Media) for 24-hour captioning.
Live class (Zoom or Teams), no accommodation request for captioned media
- Enable Zoom or Teams live captioning/transcription at the start of class.
- Remind students how they can turn on/off the captions if needed.
Recorded class or video, no accommodation need for captioned media
- Zoom recordings from the cloud will have automatically generated captions. It's important to review them and edit for accuracy where necessary.
- For non-Zoom recordings, import automatically generated captions from Panopto. It's important to review them and edit for accuracy where necessary.