Embedded Files
Transcript & Captioning Compliance Options
Transcript & Captioning Compliance Options
Auto-generate, then correct.
Auto-generate, then correct.
Most platforms (YouTube, Zoom, Kaltura, Microsoft Stream) generate automatic captions for free.
Budget time to review the auto-generated captions against the video and fix any errors.
Use your institution's captioning service or vendor.
Use your institution's captioning service or vendor.
Many colleges have a contract with a professional captioning vendor (like 3Play Media or Verbit) through their accessibility or IT office — often free or subsidized for instructors. Check with your accessibility office before paying out of pocket.
Write the transcript first, then build captions from it.
Write the transcript first, then build captions from it.
If you're recording a new video, script or outline it in advance — this both speeds up the caption/transcript process afterward and doubles as your transcript.
Audio Description Compliance Options
Audio Description Compliance Options
Record narrative descriptions
Record narrative descriptions
The accessible options are either scripting brief narration and re-recording/inserting it into gaps in the original audio, or providing a separate extended-description version. If visual information is minimal, sometimes the simplest fix is re-recording narration so the instructor describes what's on screen as they go — which avoids needing separate audio description at all.
Use your institution's captioning service or vendor.
Use your institution's captioning service or vendor.
Many colleges have a contract with a professional captioning vendor (like 3Play Media or Verbit) through their accessibility or IT office (often free or subsidized for instructors). Check with your accessibility office before paying out of pocket.
Remediate, Replace, or Remove?
Remediate, Replace, or Remove?
Remediate when:
The video already has an auto-generated caption file that just needs correcting
You (or your institution) have access to caption/captioning tools and the video is worth keeping
The only gap is a transcript, which can usually be generated from an existing caption file quickly
Replace when:
A properly captioned, professionally produced version of similar content already exists (e.g., a publisher's captioned lecture video, a captioned documentary clip)
The video needs audio description and re-recording the whole thing with better narration is easier than adding a description track after the fact
The video is old, low quality, or a better resource now exists
Remove when:
The video is optional supplementary material, rarely watched, and not worth the remediation effort
Nobody has editing access or the source file, and it can't reasonably be captioned
The same learning objective can be met without it
Quick reference for this site's decision tool
Quick reference for this site's decision tool
Situation
Likely path
YouTube video, auto-captions on, dialogue is clear and simple
Remediate — correct the auto-captions
Old scanned VHS transfer, no source file, rarely assigned
Remove
Screen-recorded demo with lots of unnarrated visual detail
Remediate by adding audio description, or replace with a version where you narrate what you're clicking
Publisher-provided video already has captions and a transcript
No action needed — already compliant
Podcast-style audio file with no visuals
Add a transcript (captions don't apply — there's no video track)
Sanity Check
Sanity Check
Every video with dialogue needs captions — no exceptions, no "auto-captions are close enough." Audio description and transcripts depend on what the video contains. When in doubt, ask: could someone who can't hear this follow along with captions alone, and could someone who can't see this follow along with the audio alone? If the answer to both is yes, you're most of the way to compliant.
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