Video Captions

Why do video captions matter?

From WebAIM: “Accessible multimedia (visual and auditory content that is synchronized) must include captions—text versions of speech and other important audio content—allowing it to be accessible to people who can't hear all of the audio. … Beyond people with disabilities, captioning helps people who only partially understand the language presented.”

When should you caption a video?

It’s required to have human-created/edited captions:

• If the video is produced by the Libraries for a broad, public audience
• If the video is produced by the Libraries and is embedded on the Libraries website
• If the video is recorded or produced for an instruction session that includes an audience member who has requested captioning as an accommodation for a disability

Examples of videos that need captions:

• Video tour of the bookBot that is embedded on our website
• Publicly available tutorial videos
• Oral histories and digitized SCRC video content on Rare & Unique Digital Collections site
• Workshop recordings that are likely to be reused later

How do I caption a video?

NC State University Libraries staff can order captions for a video using our 3Play Media subscription.

First, sign up for 3Play Media:

1. Sign up for a 3Play Media login
2. Ask Anne Burke or Shaun Bennett to connect your login to the NC State University Libraries group account

Then, order captions:

View a 45-second screencast (Vimeo)

1. Log into 3Play Media
2. Select Order Services
3. Choose Transcription & Captioning
4. Choose Extended turnaround (unless this is a rush job)
   1. Skip optional services
5. Choose YouTube or Vimeo, depending on where your video is posted. Tick the checkbox next to the video(s) you want to caption.
   1. It doesn’t matter which 3Play folder to store files in, unless you want to keep organized
6. Look over the order and then hit Submit. Done!

When the captions are ready, the captions and transcripts will be added automatically to the official NC State University Libraries YouTube and Vimeo accounts. No need for further work on your part. You won’t get notified.

Things to know

• Turnaround time: ranges from 2 hours (expensive) to 1 week (“extended,” our preference).
• Linked accounts: The Libraries’ main YouTube and Vimeo accounts are linked to 3Play Media.
• Captioned by humans: 3Play Media employs real people to caption videos. These captions are miles better than automated captions (which aren't ADA compliant). If your video uses technical language, you can include a glossary that the captioner can refer to. Also, we get a little discount with NC State's captioning grant.
• Cost: We have a captioning budget for Libraries videos. You don't have to ask anyone's permission to use 3Play Media captioning services on Libraries videos in this academic year.

What to look for when reviewing captions

Set a calendar reminder for yourself to check the video a week after you order captions. Check the video’s captions or transcript:

• Are names and acronyms spelled correctly?
• Are there misspellings, dropped phrases, or parts of the video labeled “inaudible” that you can correct?
• Does the punctuation make sense? (e.g., commas for natural pauses, periods for complete thoughts)

If anything needs correcting, log into our video channel’s account and manually edit the caption file or transcript there.

What about videos created by a third party?

Ideally, any third-party videos our website links to should have high-quality captions (edited by humans, not simply auto-generated). On our website, the main use case for these external videos are tutorials created by third parties, such as “how to” videos for using certain devices in our collections.

Does the video have high-quality captions? Then you can link to or embed the video on our website. 

If it does not have high-quality captions, then you can only link to it (but not embed it).

University guidance →

Need help?

If you find issues that you don’t have access to fix or that you don’t understand how to address, please contact the Accessibility Committee. We’ll help you fix it or add it to our list of tracked issues.

Resources

• Best Practices for Creating and Recording Video for instructors (Confluence link for Libraries staff only)
• Closed Captioning: Not Just a Tool, a Legal Requirement (from DELTA) — guidance for videos you create yourself and classroom use cases