Captioning
- The words spoken
- The words spoken
- Who is speaking
- Music feel
- Sound effects
- Text file
- May have captioning details
Should I caption myself, or pay a vendor?
This depends on how many videos you post and how much time you can invest.
Do-it-yourself option:
Most video streaming platforms offer some type of auto-caption/synchronized transcript option. Machine-generated captions are not accurate enough to meet the required accuracy threshold. You must edit the captions so they are accurate.
For short one or two minute videos, you may want to simply Review and Edit the auto-generated captions. YouTube makes this very easy. After you get comfortable with the process it will take about 3 times as long as the video's length.
YouTube edit captions example:
Similar caption editing options are available with:
Use a vendor option:
For longer videos, you should probably outsource them. Contact Duke's list of recommended captioning vendors. for a quote. Estimates are approximately $1/minute. Costs for captioning services are the responsibility of the content publisher/owner.
See: Captioning for YouTube Files with Rev and 3Play.
After captions have been created add subtitles & closed captions to the video.
More information on vetted captioning vendors.
Importance of captioning
Why captioning is important:
- About 10 million Americans are deaf or hard of hearing.
- About 20 percent of Americans report some degree of hearing loss.
- About 60 percent of the people with hearing loss are either in the workforce or in educational settings.
Side benefits of captioning:
Increases user engagement and increases the likelihood they will watch the entire video. Here is what adding captions can do:
- 40% more time spent watching the video.
- 80% more people watch the video to completion vs 40% for videos without.
- Viewers have a higher likelihood of a positive reaction.
- Creating searchable video content.
- Increase student engagement through an interactive experience.