As our world grows increasingly digital, we turn to video and video conferencing tools for entertainment, social interactions, learning, and assessments. While video provides exciting opportunities for engagement, it can also create significant barriers for others. It is particularly important in educational contexts that we leverage the power of multimedia, but champion accessibility along the way.

The website Captions for All aims to boost the accessibility of learning environments for all learners (through captions and accessible audio,video) while also empowering teachers with the effective resources to feel confident when creating instructional content. The website seeks to provide tips, strategies, and tools to support educators in designing accessible instructional videos and multimedia for learning environments, specifically hybrid or virtual environments. Specifically, upon viewing this site, you will be able to access automatic captions, provide accurate closed captions, utilize live captioning, and provide transcripts for videos. While the guidance on the site primarily focuses on YouTube and G-Suite for education, the content is transferable to other contexts. The writing's on the wall: captions for all means accessibility for all!

Providing closed captions and captioned material is a federal requirement as part of federal civil rights laws that protect students with disabilities. Providing closed captions is not simply the nice thing to do, it is the right thing to do!

Legal Requirements

The ADA (Americans with Disabilities Act), federal IDEA laws (Individuals with Disabilities Act), and both Section 504 and Section 508 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 all include access to captions as requirements for supporting those with disabilities (AEM Center).

Connections to Education

Often, individualized education plans (IEPs) for public school students with deaf and hard of hearing needs specifically require that educators provide instructional materials and assignments that include closed captioning to promote an accessible learning environment. While closed captions certainly fulfill legal requirements and support those with disabilities, closed captions can benefit others, as well. A core tenet of the Universal Design for Learning framework (CAST, 2018) argues that what is beneficial for some, is usually beneficial to us all. Usually curb cutouts, automatic opening doors, and elevators come to mind. However, closed captions are also a key example of this universalism. Closed captions benefit us as we age and may suffer from hearing loss. Captions benefit those who are learning a new language or when one's surroundings are too loud to hear the plot in a video. Though captions are initially designed to benefit the deaf and hard of hearing community, many other groups benefit.

In terms of instructional contexts, providing closed captions can many students in multiple ways. About 2 out of every 1,000 children born in the United States are born with hearing loss (NIDCD) and as a result, it is highly likely an instructor will support a student with hearing loss and IEP needs at least once (more than likely multiple times) during a teaching career. Similarly, English Language Learners (ELL), another demographic group which particularly benefits from the use of closed captions, are the fastest growing student population in the United States as 1 out of every 10 students in public schools is an ELL (NPR). As virtual instruction, instructional technology tools, and instructional videos grow exponentially, it is important that educators are equipped with the skills to create materials that are accessible for their diverse student populations. Captions can be incorporated into educational media in a number of ways. Explore the pages on the website to learn how to develop content that supports hearing variability, champions accessibility, and promotes inclusion.