Videos can be an effective way to clarify complex information. When video captions are complete and correct, individuals with hearing or cognitive disabilities, as well as those learning a new language, can interact successfully with digital content. Inaccurate and incomplete video captions, though, leave those same users to guess at meaning.
Video captions convey meaning
Let’s say a first-year seminar instructor wants to inspire incoming students with a commencement day video. The instructor posts the video on YouTube and assigns it to students for viewing. The instructor remembers to enable YouTube’s automatic captioning feature but does not review the captioning transcript. The video’s caption reads: “On gradation day student swearing cap sand gown sleep joy filly in two the san marcus river these students are taking apart in one of the unity’s most time-honed gradation tradings.”
Did you get that?
You’ve just experienced firsthand the confusion individuals with hearing, vision, and cognitive impairments, and new language learners feel when faced with inaccurate captioning. While the hypothetical graduation video may be merely informational, consider the impact of erroneous captions on video content posted for courses like Apple-Eyed Fizzes (Applied Physics), or a Literature of the Wren Is Ants (Renaissance).
Legal requirements
Accurate video captioning is both the right thing to do and a legal obligation. The resolutions of lawsuits filed by the National Association of the Deaf against Harvard University and against M.I.T. imply legal precedent requiring greater than 99% transcription accuracy. While 100% accuracy may not always be achievable, these high-profile actions suggest courts will expect captions to be at least 99.9% correct. Forcing students to sift through incomplete and incorrect course content denies them information they’ve paid to receive. For this reason alone, video content should be accurately captioned.
Help YuJa help you
YuJa, Texas State’s official video platform, offers a robust auto-captioning feature. Auto-transcriptions can reach a high level of accuracy if background noise is minimal and speech is clear. To help boost caption accuracy, YuJa provides straightforward editing tools for correcting caption errors. Publishers can easily review YuJa’s automated captions to ensure at least 99% accuracy of word usage, grammar, punctuation, capitalization, identification of background noises and music, and speaker tags in each video posted. YuJa offers a Step-by-Step Auto-Captioning Overview, and the IT Assistance Center (ITAC) offers YuJa beginning and advanced training sessions.
Editing captions is easy!
There are two easy steps to achieve compliant caption accuracy:
- Upload or record your video in YuJa, and auto-captioning will begin automatically.
- Open the YuJa video editor to review and correct your transcript for optimum accuracy.
YuJa does most of the work for you. Reviewing and correcting content for accuracy reflects compassion and respect for Bobcats of every ability. When sharing information, every word counts. For more information about digital accessibility, email Texas State’s Electronic Information Resources Accessibility Coordinator.
Evan Pickrel is the electronic information resources accessibility coordinator in the Division of Information Technology.
