6 Caption Media

Instructors who have D/deaf or Hard of Hearing students in their classes need to consider the accessibility of the media they plan to use. These instructors will be notified in advance before the semester begins by the student sharing their Letter of Accommodation and then by Student Disability Services. Instructors who intend to use DVD, VHS, or web-based videos and/or podcasts in their course should be aware that they are responsible for offering captioned versions of course materials.

Videos are accessible when they are captioned, and podcasts are accessible when a written transcript accompanies the audio file. Please note that automatic captions on some platforms are not accurate and might need to be recaptioned. If a video is not captioned or a podcast does not have a transcript, instructors will need to arrange for an accessible version to be produced. 

Instructors should plan ahead by allowing up to three weeks for transcription and captioning services. Including captions is part of best teaching practices and guidelines for Universal Design for Learning. Inaccessible media must not be shown in class until accessible media is available for all students. 

Student Disability Services is available to assist instructors with locating captioned videos, adding captions to videos, and showing videos with captions in classrooms and online courses for classroom materials. Requests are encouraged to be sent as soon as possible by contacting our office, or for students registered with SDS, their Access Consultant.  

Set up for remote Human Speech–to-Text

Special Situation: Small group work and Zoom Breakout Rooms 

During discussion sessions, if the class is split into groups, it is often beneficial to allow the D/deaf or Hard of Hearing student the option to have their group in the hallway or nearby classroom (if either is feasible) so the student can understand the conversation better. It is recommended to check with the student in advance (and in private) to understand if this is something that would benefit them. 

For Zoom breakout room discussions, use the “main room” as a breakout room, to ensure no gap in captioning services.  A simple statement “for those who need or want to use captions, please stay in the main room for the use of captions” and then opening a separate (empty) room that the instructor can join allows the students to have a similar experience to other students.