Captions and Transcripts
NEW: A vision for education and skills at Newcastle University: Education for Life 2030+
Providing captions for recorded content
This guidance has been produced to outline the importance of captions for recorded content, and to support colleagues in including automated captions in recordings provided for educational purposes using University supported systems.
For the purpose of this guidance the term ‘recorded content’ and ‘recordings’ are used to include all types of recordings that are provided to students for educational purposes - videos, screen captures with audio and audio only.
Why is it important to provide captions?
All learning resources should aim to be as accessible and inclusive as possible and the provision of captions for recordings is part of the University’s commitment to this. This commitment to accessibility and inclusion is underpinned by both the Equality Act and the more recent Public Sector Bodies (Websites and Mobile Applications) Accessibility Regulations 2018.
University policy position
The Accessibility Regulations state that video recorded content provided online should be accessible to all viewers and as part of this requires that all recordings include captions. University Education Committee has approved the implementation of automatically-generated captions for all recordings produced for educational activities.
Recorded content made using University supported systems - the University aims to provide automatically-generated captions for pre-recorded content and recordings of live sessions that are stored for 14 days or more, made using University supported services. The captioning functionality varies between the services and the capabilities of each system are outlined in the Captioning capability in our systems section of this website.
Recordings provided by external sites - Ideally captions should be provided, but if it does not, you should supplement the video with another resource that will enable the student to access the same learning, e.g. a transcript or another document which contains the same or similar information. It also does not have to be specifically created for this purpose – it could be an existing resource. Sites which caption all videos include YouTube, LinkedIn Learning and Box of Broadcasts (Learning on Screen).
Creating captions and their accuracy
Video creation systems use technology called ASR (Automatic Speech Recognition) to create captions. The University recognises that the accuracy of these machine generated captions varies depending on the audio quality, topic and speaker, and will not be 100% correct.
The University recognises that colleagues may have concerns regarding the publication of captions that are not 100% accurate. However, it does not think correcting automatically-generated captions is an effective or proportionate activity and does not expect or require colleagues to edit or correct automatically-generated captions.
Students should be advised that they should not rely solely on the captions when viewing video content and should use them alongside other learning resources such as accompanying PowerPoint slides and wider readings to ensure they understand the topic and terminology used.
Support is available via the Student Health and Wellbeing Team for those students who require accurate captions as part of a reasonable adjustment. Contact details are included in the University Captions Disclaimer.
The University’s policy position is stated in its Captions Disclaimer and communicated to students via induction materials, the Student Health and Wellbeing website, the Academic Skills Kit, the accessibility section of the Canvas Orientation course and within the accessibility statements for the digital education systems.
Captioning capability in our systems
The following table outlines the current position for our institutionally supported digital education systems. This information will be updated as, and when, the functionality changes. In addition, the University will continue to monitor the automatic speech recognition market and investigate solutions that may support higher levels of accuracy in automatic captioning services.
| System | Caption functionality status in September 2021 | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Panopto (ReCap) |
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| Canvas |
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Microsoft Teams meetings |
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| Stream (on SharePoint) |
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| Zoom |
|
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| Vimeo |
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Are captions added to my recordings automatically?
The process varies between technologies and the functionality of each is outlined in the Captioning capability in our systems section of this website. For example, in ReCap (Panopto) from 24 September 2021 the captions file is automatically generated and added to the recording.
Do I need to edit my captions?
No, the University recognises that automatically-generated captions will not be 100% accurate. However, it does not think correcting automatically-generated captions is an effective or proportionate activity, and does not expect or require colleagues to edit or correct automatically-generated captions. The rationale for implementing non-perfect captioning options is that having imperfect captions is better than having no captions.
Is there any support available for editing of captions?
No resource will be available to edit captions unless a student requires accurate captions as part of a reasonable adjustment. If this is the case please contact the Student Health and Wellbeing Team at disabilityadvisor@newcastle.ac.uk.
I don’t have any students who need captions. Do I still need to provide them?
Yes, all learning resources should aim to be as accessible and inclusive as possible and the provision of captions for videos is part of the University’s commitment to this. We do not always have a full picture of student requirements if they choose not to share all of their circumstances. All students can benefit from the inclusion of captions to enhance their learning and can enable them to view videos in situations where it might not otherwise be possible.
How can I ensure my captions are as accurate as possible?
The accuracy of automatically-generated captions varies depending on a number of aspects including the system being used, audio quality, topic and speaker. While automatically-generated captions will not be 100% accurate there are some things you can do to improve the accuracy and to provide clarification where there are inaccuracies:
- When recording in teaching venues via the automated ReCap system try to stay close to the microphone – the better the audio quality the more accurate the captions will be.
- Include keywords and terminology on presentation slides – this will help students to clarify what is being said if the automatic speech recognition does not present words accurately.
- When recording on your desktop for example using ReCap Personal Capture, check the audio levels on your microphone and try to avoid any unnecessary background noise.
If you are teaching a student who requires accurate captions as part of a reasonable adjustment please contact disabilityadvisor@newcastle.ac.uk.
What happens if I decide not to include captions in my videos?
Captioning of videos is required as part of the University’s compliance with the Accessibility Regulations and therefore colleagues are not able to opt out of providing captions.
It is possible to edit your captions if you are unhappy with them however it is not expected or required. The University recognises that automatically-generated captions will not be 100% accurate. However, it does not think correcting automatically-generated captions is an effective or proportionate activity, and does not expect or require colleagues to edit or correct automatically-generated captions.
Could I provide a script or transcript in place of captions?
No, in order to comply with the Accessibility Regulations the provision of a script or transcript cannot be used as a replacement to captions. However, it is effective practice to provide additional learning resources and if you have a script or transcript available these could be made available to enhance student learning.
Do videos I refer students to hosted on external sites need to be captioned?
Ideally yes, but if it does not, you should supplement the video with another resource that will enable the student to access the same learning, e.g. a transcript or another document which contains the same or similar information. It also does not have to be specifically created for this purpose – it could be an existing resource.
Sites which caption all videos include YouTube, LinkedIn Learning and Box of Broadcasts (Learning on Screen).