Video Captioning Resources

Owned by Christian Jones
Last updated: Aug 23, 2024 by Christian Jones
4 min read

The following page reviews video captioning resources reviewed by the Information Technology Services (ITS) accessibility team.

Table of Contents

About Captioning


About Live Captioning


About Audio Description

  • Audio description (sometimes referred to as Described Video) is provided by a trained describer that provides descriptions of the visual components of the video. Audio description makes video accessible to blind/visually-impaired persons who would otherwise miss out on information presented visually. This information is synchronized with the video, but provided in a separate sound track.
  • For a full description and example of audio description, see the Penn State whitepaper titled An Introduction to Audio Description in Higher Education Video Content


Captioning of Recorded Videos from Popular Platforms

Many of our campus video and web conferencing platforms have some level of support for automatic captioning, but in most cases we recommend using Kaltura as your primary video storage and captioning tool. Please remember that while machine-generated captions can be a time-saver, they are error-prone and always require editing/clean-up.

Blackboard Collaborate Recordings

    • Blackboard Collaborate does not have automatic captioning functionality, so you must have a caption file created outside of Collaborate.

    • If professional captions are desired they can be obtained from a captioning vendor in VTT or SRT format and uploaded to Collaborate.

    • Recommend downloading Collaborate recordings to Kaltura for captioning/storage.

Google Meet Recordings

    • Google Meet does not have automatic captioning functionality.

    • Recommend downloading Meet recordings and importing to Kaltura for captioning/storage

Kaltura MediaSpace Captioning

    • Videos created or uploaded to Kaltura will have automatic captioning applied which should then be cleaned up using Kaltura’s captioning editor. 
    • See Using the Kaltura Caption Editor.
    • If professional captions are desired they can be obtained from a captioning vendor in SRT format and uploaded to Kaltura.
    • Zoom cloud recordings are automatically archived in Kaltura along with the automatically generated Zoom captions AND Kaltura automatically generated captions. User can choose which caption file to display on the Kaltura player and can edit/clean up the caption files in the Kaltura caption editor.

Microsoft Teams Recordings

    • Recordings are saved to Microsoft Stream where automatic captioning is applied and can be cleaned up using the Stream caption editor, or import the video to Kaltura for automatic captioning and cleanup using the Kaltura caption editor. Visit Microsoft's Edit the Transcript of a Meeting Recording in Teams.

    • If professional captions are desired recommend requesting SRT format and importing to Kaltura.

Zoom Recordings

    • Zoom applies automatic captioning to meeting recordings  (within Zoom)

    • Zoom editor can be used to clean-up/edit captions for viewing in Zoom. (Note: Zoom caption file results in captions that contain too much text per line and too many lines per timestamp, which can’t be changed easily.)

    • Zoom cloud recordings are automatically archived in Kaltura and closed captions will be generated.


Live Captioning of Events on Popular Platforms

Note: When determining how best to provide live captions for your event please consult Guidelines for CART and ASL Interpreting. 

Blackboard Collaborate

    • Moderator assigns captioner role to attendee, usually a professional captioner.
    • Note: Live captions will be available as closed captions on the recorded video in Blackboard, but live captions rarely meet the standard of quality required for recorded video so captioning of recording will still be required.

Google Meet

    • Automatic live captions are available during the session.
    • Note: Live captions are not available for download or for use in closed captioning of recording.

Microsoft Teams

    • Microsoft Teams does not support a live, professional captioner however automatic live captions are provided.
    • Note: Live captions are not available for download after the meeting.

Zoom

    • Zoom supports both professional live transcription services (CART) and third-party live transcription products such as Otter.ai.  Also, Zoom also has its own integrated live transcription, known as Live Transcript.
    • Automated live transcription is not available in breakout rooms, and there can be only one human transcriptionist at a time. Live captions in concurrent breakout rooms are not supported.
    • Meeting hosts must enable captions in their settings and decide whether to allow participants to download transcripts. Once captions are enabled in the settings, they must also be enabled for each meeting by the host.
    • Transcripts of live captions should be downloaded by participants (if allowed) before ending the meeting. Note:  Speaker identification is included in the live transcript available on-screen during the session, but speakers are not identified in the version that participants can save locally. 
    • Cloud recordings will be automatically saved to the host's account on Kaltura. Kaltura will generate automated/machine-generated closed captions, which should be updated using the Kaltura Caption Editor.


Captioning Vendors


Do-It-Yourself 

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