Captioning and Extension

Recorded videos used by Extension are subject to ADA compliance regulations. At the most basic level, we are legally required to caption any video content which contains information which is not already available in an accessible text-based format elsewhere, and is clearly labeled as such.

Beyond our legal requirements, we recognize that only time-synced, verbatim captions are capable of providing full and equitable access to video content for those who would benefit from such an accommodation. Captions are meant to be non audio, text based representation of the audio content provided as part of a video. For this reason, the Division of Extension requires that all external, public facing pre-recorded video content meet or exceed ADA requirements for captioning. 

For video content designed solely for internal consumption (training, updates, professional development, announcements), Extension recognizes that while having all video content captioned is our goal, it may not always be possible or feasible due to economic or time constraints. For these internal videos, a determination on how to caption should be made based on ‘severity of need’ and the following guidelines:

• Video Audience
• Time sensitivity
• Video shelf life
• Availability of identical information via text-based alternative

Automatically generated captions are not acceptable at this time as they do not meet quality standards.

Captioning your videos

Vendors should provide captions containing embedded timestamps in the .srt file format. This format can be used with a variety of accessible media players including cloud based ones such as YouTube, FaceBook, Kaltura and others.

At this time, content creators are responsible for any costs associated with captioning their videos. Please work with your program or institute to secure funding.

Current contract vendors : Media captioning, transcription, and audio description vendor rate comparison

Tools for captioning yourself: https://www.wgbh.org/foundation/what-we-do/ncam/cadet

Note - it is recommended to go through one of the contract vendors where possible for producing professional, high quality captions. Self-captioning should be limited to short videos and only when necessary due to cost or time sensitivity

Additional resources on captions

For questions on captioning your video content, including options for captioning live events, please contact us at accessibility@extension.wisc.edu

Center for Digital Accessibility and User Experience

https://it.wisc.edu/about/division-of-information-technology/doit-departments/center-for-accessibility-user-experience/

Infographic on the importance of captions:

https://www.nationaldeafcenter.org/resource/why-captions-provide-equal-access

National Institute of Health on Captions:

https://www.nidcd.nih.gov/publication-products/captions-deaf-and-hard-hearing-viewers

Web Standards on Captions:

https://www.w3.org/WAI/WCAG21/Understanding/captions-prerecorded.html