Creating Captions

Captioning, as refered to in this discussion, is a verbatim rendering of the words, speech sounds and non-speech sounds that appear with the visual or audio recording in sycnchronized fashion.  Captioning provides access to the audio portion of recordings, directly benefits deaf and hard of hearing individuals and indirectly benefits foreign-language speakers and the older population.  (This discussion does not refer to descriptions for individuals with vision issues.)

Educational recordings used in class need to be provided in a timely manner to students to provide equal programmatic access.  Video and audio recordings produced for the public web site should be captioned before being referenced on the web site. 

The basic steps for creating captions are:

1. create the recording,
2. create the transcript (to recommended standards for speech and non-speech elements).
3. synchronize the transcript with the recording and
4. produce the final captioned video for
   • iTunesU
   • the web,
   • a CD or DVD or
   • YouTube.

Of course there are multiple alternatives approaches including:

• Step 2 & 3: reversing the order by creating the transcript and then the recording,
• Step 3: Camtasia Relay profiles can be configured so that step 3 is partially accomplishd through Camtasia Relay integrated voice recognition software in step 2.  Detailed steps available under the Camtasia screen recording section.
• Step 3 & 4: using Youtube automatic syncing capabilities so that the last two steps above are collapsed into one.

Existing media

The focus of this discussion is on creating captioning on UM produced materials.  Educational material used in classrooms and campus functions may be available in captioned form.  The providers or producers of the material should be asked first to provide a captioned version.  The Mansfield Library is also a source of help when searching for a captioning version.  Individuals who are unable to find a captioned version of crucial media can follow the procedure described below.

Qualified student in a class

When there is a student registered with Disability Services for Students who has requested captioning accommodations, the teacher should contact DSS (243-2243)  for updated information and captioning coordination.

Definitions and clarification

To clarify, synchronized captioning, not a separate transcript nor a bulleted list, is the goal. 

Subtitles vs. captions:

Traditional captioning of TV and DVDs occurred in a separate video channel.  What is often produced now in high definition situations or through desktop tools is technically subtitles.  However, these subtitles can function almost the same as true captions. 

Closed vs. open captions:

Another point of clarification is whether something is closed captioned (which means the captioning can be opened and closed) or open captioned (which means the captioning is always visible). 

Descriptive Video Services

Descriptive Video involves trained professionals who use the pauses in dialogue to describe the scene.   The primary users of descriptive video services are indviiduals with vision limitations.