As a requirement of the Accessibility for Ontarians with Disabilities Act (AODA), any video material posted on the website or used as course content, in class or posted on MyCanvas, must be captioned.
Captioning is beneficial not only to those with hearing loss but also those for whom an additional textual representation of auditory information is an important learning support.
Live Captioning
Live captioning, also known as Communication Access Real-time Translation (CART) services, provide real-time captioning/transcription of courses with synchronous delivery, college events, and meetings.
Closed and Open Captioning
Captioning for pre-recorded audio and video content can be produces in a few different ways.
Closed Captioning
Closed captioning is a timed textual overlay, and is provided as an additional file associated with a video. The user can turn the captions on and off as needed.
Open Captioning
Like closed captioning, open captioning is a timed textual overlay but this time it is “baked” into the video. It will always be displayed and cannot be turned off or on.
Transcription
Transcripts are textual representations, print or digital, of audio content including the auditory information from a video.
Requesting Captioning Services
Note
For materials not created by you, or that you do not hold the copyright for, you first need to obtain permission to create a captioned copy of the video or audio file. The Mohawk College Library can assist you in obtaining permission and keeping the record of the permission.
Accommodation Requests
Live and closed captioning services being provided as an accommodation for students need follow the accommodation process. Please see the Accessible Learning Services Live and Closed Captioning Accommodation Guide for more information.
Requests Not Related to Accommodations
For more information or to make a request not related to accommodations, please contact the Accessible Learning Services Technician by email at alstechnician [at] mohawkcollege.ca (alstechnician[at]mohawkcollege[dot]ca) or by phone at (905) 575-1212 ex 3554.
Do It Yourself
Want to produce your own captions/transcripts?
How long does it take?
- Transcription: approximately 4.5 x the duration of the video
- Captioning: approximately 3.3 x the duration of the video
What tools do I use?
There are several tools out there which allow you to create your own captions/transcripts such as Subtitle Edit.
YouTube also provides automatic captioning when you upload videos to their platform. This form of captioning is purely machine transcription and it is highly recommended you review and edit the subtitles generated by YouTube within their platform.
Services like Otter.ai create captions/transcripts for you and provide a wide variety of features. This software has several uses outside of captioning. Some of these services have a free version with limited time and/or functionality and offer a paid version.
Microsoft Teams has an included captioning feature you can turn on for live captioning and if you record your MS Teams session, the associated MS Stream platform, where the video will be uploaded, includes a transcript and captioning.
There are also captioning features within Microsoft PowerPoint.
Descriptive Video Captioning for the Blind
Descriptive Video (DV) allows people who are blind or visually-impaired to "hear" the pictures that appear on their television screen. By accessing the secondary audio program (SAP), DV consumers can listen to both the main program audio and a narrator describing key visuals, including scenery, body language and other action during pauses in the dialogue. This accommodation is provided upon request and can be provided following the same process as Closed Captioning.