On this page, you will find resources to assist you in obtaining professional captions for your videos, and/or in captioning them on your own.
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Benefits of video captions
Professors, students and IT administrators share the benefits of using captions for videos used in postsecondary education in this video titled Captions: Improving Access to Postsecondary Education.
When are captions required?
Copyright considerations
- If you are captioning a video created by someone else, determine if your purpose qualifies for Fair Use
- Copyright Law vs Accessibility Law: Is it Fair Use to Caption Video you Don't Own? (3PlayMedia, April 9, 2015)
Professional Captioning Resources
The table below lists organizations that provide CART and/or captions. CART transcriptions from events, if available, may be used to facilitate creating captions for recordings of those events. Additionally, some CART transcriptionists may be willing to create captions and send the finished caption file to you, for you to attach to a video you have uploaded to a streaming site.
Please note that the services and rates described below are current as of July 2015.
| Organization/Company Name | Services Offered | Rates | Contact Information | Comments |
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| 3PlayMedia | Captioning & transcription Translation & subtitling Spanish captioning & transcription Interactive transcripts Various tools & plugins | $2.50/min with Pro Plan 4 business days turnaround | t: 617-764-5189 f: 617-245-0510 | Fully integrates with Ensemble to submit videos for captioning. See 3PlayMedia Ensemble Video Integration for more details. |
| Automatic Sync Technologies (CaptionSync) | Captions & subtitles Transcription Video encoding Caption translations Production transcripts Interactive transcripts DVD/MP4 transfer Digital NLE captions | $2.59/min 3 business days turnaround $3.25/min 1 business day turnaround $2.49/min 4+ days turnaround | t: 877-278-7962 | Fully integrates with Ensemble to submit videos for captioning with just a few clicks. See How to Caption Video with Ensemble / Automatic Sync Integration
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| Caption Advantage, LLC | Real-time captioning Post-production video captioning | Contact Caption Advantage for pricing information | t (local): 315-492-0069 f: 315-492-1426 | |
| Ensemble/CaptionEx | Captioning Transcription Translation
| Rates are for videos hosted in Ensemble $1.50/min for transcription & captioning for 3 business days turnaround $2.30/min for transcription & captioning for1 business day turnaround | t: 844-552-2739 | Read more about pricing for videos hosted in Ensemble. |
| Rev | Transcription Captions Subtitles Translation | $1.00/min 1 business day turnaround | t: 888-369-0701 | Rev.com has a loose integration with Ensemble. It is not necessary to upload an Ensemble video to Rev.com, but finished caption files must be downloaded from Rev.com and uploaded to Ensemble. See Instructions for captioning Ensemble Videos with Rev.com. Some errors were found in caption text. Best practice is to review the captions provided by Rev.com and make corrections as needed. |
| SpeakerText | Captions Interactive transcripts | Premium (95% accuracy): Same day (12 hrs or less): $2.00/min Priority express (24 hrs or less): $1.00 Superior (99% accuracy): Standard (2 business days): $1.50 | t: 1-888-809-0229 |
Automated Transcription Services
***Please note: Automated captions use voice recognition technology to create a transcript of the video. This technology is not perfect so the transcript will always have errors. It is imperative that you review and correct errors.
| Vendor | Description of Services | Cost |
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| Ensemble Video | Automated captions that can be edited with the Amara caption editor which is built into Ensemble | $3/hour of video |
| trint | Automated transcript that can be edited with the trint editor that "marries a text editor to an audio/video player. Click on a word and hear your original audio, making it easier than ever to quickly search, verify and (if necessary) correct your content." | Starting at $15/hour with reduced pricing for monthly plans. |
| YouTube | Automated captions that can be edited with the YouTube caption editor. (Note: YouTube's automated captions do not include punctuation or capitalization at the beginning of sentences. Captions must be edited to be usable.) | Free |
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NEW (June 2018)
In order to make it easier for everyone to comply with the new ICT Accessibility policy, ITS has worked with Automatic Sync Technologies (AST) to provide captioning and transcription services using their CaptionSync automated captioning service. See Captioning With AST/CaptionSync for more information if:
• You have a video or audio file that needs captions.
• You have a video on your YouTube or Vimeo channel that needs captions.
• You have a video in Ensemble that needs captions.
• You have a video that will require audio description.
• You would like to have a YouTube or Vimeo video that you do NOT own captioned.
• You need live captioning for an event.
About Captioning
- Captions: Improving Access to Postsecondary Education, a video from the University of Washington
- Video Captioning: When is it required? (Video Captioning Decision Tree)
- Guidelines for Captioning
About Cart Services
About Audio Description
- Audio description (sometimes referred to as Described Video)
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- is provided by a trained describer that provides descriptions of the visual components of the video.
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- Audio description makes video accessible to blind/visually-impaired persons who would otherwise miss out on information presented visually.
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- This information is synchronized with the video, but provided in a separate sound track.
- For a full description and example of audio description, see the Penn State whitepaper titled
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Vendors
| Organization/Company Name | Services Offered | Rates | Contact Information | Comments |
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| 3PlayMedia | Transcription & captioning Audio Description | up to $9.50/min. 5 day turnaround Volume discounts available | 3PlayMedia website | Several output formats available Audio description plugin included for playing the audio descriptions with multiple video players |
Captioning and Described Media Services AMAC Accessibility Solutions | Transcription & captioning Audio Description CART | Captioning: $3.42/min. Audio Description:
| AMAC focuses on Higher Education market | |
| AUDIOEYES LLC | Captioning Video Description | Audio Eyes website | ||
Lists of Vendors:
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DIY Audio Description
- Find resources for creating your own Audio Descriptions at The Smith-Kettlewell Video Description Research and Development Center.
- videos showing best practices for creating your own video descriptions
- video description software
- standards and guidelines
- YouDescribe - submit videos for audio description or do it yourself
Tools and Resources for Self-Captioning
The table below will provide you with tools and resources to caption videos yourself, should you choose to do so. Before you begin captioning, please take some time to review the Quality Captioning Guidelines below.
| Tool Name | Features | Cost | Supported Platform(s) | For More Information |
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Camtasia Studio Camtasia for Mac | Screen recording, video editing, special effects, basic captioning, and more. | Single-user Windows: $179 with educational discount Single-user Mac: $75 with educational discount Volume licenses also available. | Windows (Camtasia Studio) Mac (Camtasia for Mac) Please note that these two programs have some differing features! | Camtasia (on TechSmith website) |
| Express Scribe | Facilitates transcription by allowing the user to control audio playback (plus video playback in the paid version) using customizable hotkeys. Also works with foot pedal controllers. | Free, Basic $40, Professional $50 Please note: If you want the Free version, do not click the "Download Now" button or the "Download Express Scribe Transcription Software for Windows/Mac" link on the Express Scribe home page as this will download a full trial version that will expire. Instead, look for a section titled "Get Express Scribe Free" and the link "Download the free version of Express Scribe here". | Windows, Mac |
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| Subtitle Edit | Full-featured, free tool for creating, editing, syncing, and translating captions and subtitles (and more). Learning curve can be steep. Good tool for converting caption files to different formats. Note: Requires installation of VLC Media Player and LAV Filters (both free). | Free (open-source)
| Windows only (may run in OS X, with glitches, using Wineskin) | Subtitle Edit website |
| Subtitle Horse | Online tool for captioning streaming videos | Free to use online tool; paid license required to download and install | (Online) All platforms that support Flash Player | Subtitle Horse website |
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Copyright considerations
- If you are captioning a video created by someone else, determine if your purpose qualifies for Fair Use
- Copyright Law vs Accessibility Law: Is it Fair Use to Caption Video you Don't Own? (3PlayMedia, April 9, 2015)
Captioning Ensemble Videos
- How to Caption Ensemble Content with Automatic Sync (AST) Integration
- Captioning with Ensemble and Rev
Captioning Vendors
- 3PlayMedia
- Audioeyes LLC
- Caption Advantage, LLC
- AMAC - Captioning and Described Media Services
- SpeakerText
Do-It-Yourself
- Free Tools for Captioning YouTube Videos (Terrill Thompson, University of Washington)
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- Using YouTube, Express Scribe and other tools (Ken Petri, Ohio State University)
- How to Add Closed Captions & Subtitles to Facebook Videos
- Multi-media Universally Designed (The ACCESS Project, Colorado State University) includes Tutorials
Activating Captions in Windows Media Player and Quicktime
Quality Captioning Guidelines
Captioning someone else's YouTube videos
If you want a vendor to caption the videos:
- 3PlayMedia has a plugin that allows the captions to be overlayed on the video. You can find the details in this 3PlayMedia article: How to Caption Someone Else’s YouTube Video.
- AutomaticSync's CaptionSync also provides captions for YouTube videos you do not own under certain circumstances. See Submitting a YouTube URL.
If you want to create captions yourself, an alternative is to ask the video owner to allow you to post captions to their video. There are instructions on how to do this in a YouTube video titled “Submitting Subtitles/CC for YouTube Videos”. YouTube also provides a text-based tutorial on how to submit captions.
Ensemble Video Captioning Services
- Information on the Automatic Sync Captioning Service
- Information on the Rev Captioning Service
Other Resources
- Captioning Facebook Live events
- Video Captioning workshop PowerPoint (ITS)
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- Find resources for creating your own Audio Descriptions at The Smith-Kettlewell Video Description Research and Development Center.
- videos showing best practices for creating your own video descriptions
- video description software
- standards and guidelines
- YouDescribe - submit videos for audio description or do it yourself