Instructional Innovation and Engagement

TILT Caption and Audio Description Support​

TILT Caption and Audio Description Support is a project designed to assist instructors who are facilitating a student’s closed caption or audio description accommodation. When a student with either accommodation registers for an academic course, TILT Caption and Audio Description Support will reach out to instructors to implement an action plan to caption or describe all audio or video media in the course.

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Closed Captioning

Meeting a Closed Captioning Accommodation

Computer-generated closed captions are not yet accurate enough to meet a closed captioning accommodation. TILT Caption and Audio Description Support works with instructors to edit computer-generated captions for accuracy.

  • TILT Caption and Audio Description Support will email course instructors about students registered for their course who require closed captions. Students should provide instructors with an accommodation letter at the start of the class with the full list of their accommodations. TILT Caption and Audio Description Support will often email instructors before the student provides their accommodation letter as the captioning process can take a significant amount of time.
  • All videos need to be hosted on a platform that includes closed captioning, preferably Echo360 because that system requires no extra steps from the instructor to provide
  • TILT Caption and Audio Description Support access to their course videos. Other platforms such as YouTube or Stream may create extra work for instructors.
  • TILT Caption and Audio Description Support will work with instructors to coordinate the editing of computer-generated captions.
  • For pre-recorded videos, accurate (i.e., human-edited) closed captions must be provided at the same time the material is provided to all students.

Recordings of live class sessions will need edited closed captions as soon as possible after the lecture has concluded.

 

Closed Captions and Inclusive Design

Providing closed captions on course videos is an important piece of Inclusive Design Approach that benefits all students and gives you a big head start when meeting a disability accommodation.

Provide Computer-Generated Closed Captions on Videos

Closed captions generated by automated speech recognition (ASR) are now available on many video platforms. Whether you record lectures for your course in advance, record live class sessions for students to view later, or search for 3rd party videos online, make sure all videos have the option for students to display closed captions:

  • Host all course videos on a platform that provides computer-generated closed captions, such as Echo360.
  • Filter online search results to show only videos with closed captions: in YouTube, Search videos for captions or set Google’s Advanced Video Search subtitles option to “closed captions only”.
  • If you want to use a 3rd-party video that does not have closed captions available, ask the video owner to enable them. Sometimes this works! Another method would be to procure a download of the video for educational use and host it on a platform such as Echo.

Audio Description

Understanding Audio Description Accommodation

Audio Description is a narration track on a video that describes the visual elements of a video, typically designed for viewers who are blind or visually impaired. It describes what’s visually present or happening on screen during the gaps in dialogue or other sounds. This can include things such as:

  • Actions and gestures of characters
  • Facial expressions
  • Settings and scenery
  • Costumes and clothing
  • Text on screen

Meeting an Audio Description Accommodation

TILT Caption and Audio Description Support will contact instructors when a student with an audio description accommodation registers for their course to set out an action plan for the audio description process.

Instructors will need to provide a list of all the video in the course or planned to be created for the course. This includes optional material. TILT Caption and Audio Description Support will add audio narration tracks to any instructor video that may need audio description.

For audio description accommodations in particular, and making accessible video in general, as you record your video, be sure to explain the visual content in necessary detail. This can be things like graphs, charts, images, text, or other visual cues. It is helpful to avoid generic visual language such as “this”, “that”, “here”, “there”, and instead, use detailed language that describes where or what something is. It is also helpful to use a script when creating video as this will help guide the visual descriptions rather than having to do them impromptu.

Frequently Asked Questions

My course does not have a student with a closed caption or an audio description accommodation, can TILT caption or describe my videos?

This service is only provided for a student with a closed caption an audio description accommodation. TILT Caption and Audio Description Support can answer caption/audio description related questions, but will not provide captions or descriptions for courses that do not have a student with either accommodation.

Reach out to TILT Caption and Audio Description Support for general captioning questions or training.

While they are a step in the right direction, auto-generated captions are not ADA compliant because they can lack punctuation and have inaccuracies that can alter the meaning of the text.

Transcripts are for audio without video (think of things such as radio broadcasts or podcasts) and are not a substitute for closed captions.

In most cases, no, as Canvas does not have automated speech recognition and will not create a caption file for your video. It is recommended to use a platform such as Echo and then link to the video or embed it on a page in Canvas.

Similar to Canvas, PowerPoint does not have automated speech recognition and will not create a caption file for your video. To make a video in PowerPoint accessible, you can create a caption file in another video platform such as Echo and then manually add the caption file to the video inside the PowerPoint.

Yes, every student should have the option to view the video regardless of their ability.

Tips for Recording/Creating Accessible Video

  • Test your microphone and audio levels to ensure the sound quality
  • Record in a quiet place without background noise or room echo
  • When possible, read from a script, this will help the general flow of the video as well as the caption process
  • Upload your video to a platform that supports captioning such as Echo
  • Do not use “open” or “burned in” captions, these cannot be adjusted by users and may make reading the closed captions more difficult

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