Kaltura - How to Edit Captions and Extended Audio Descriptions in Kaltura Captions Editor [UW-Madison]

This document describes how users can edit SRT captions and VTT extended audio descriptions for media in the Kaltura Closed Captions Editor, to improve their accuracy, before displaying your captions or extended audio descriptions.
This document only provides an overview of editing capabilities for captions and extended audio descriptions. More detailed instructions are available in Kaltura's Editing Captions - REACH v2 document. You can edit machine captions, professional captions, and extended audio descriptions uploaded to Kaltura.
   

Best Practices

  • It takes between 2-4 times the length of the media to correct machine captions to 99% accuracy.
  • Please refer to and use the audio descriptions key as a guide on how to format your descriptions.
    • Describe the most important elements to convey the intended learning outcome, focusing on what is most significant and least obvious from the dialogue. 
    • Use vocabulary that is meaningful for students who are blind or visually impaired, such as clock analogies for direction or position.
    • Use present tense and active voice.
  • Please refer to and use the captioning key as a guide on how to format your captions.
    • Minimally, indicate who is speaking and use proper punctuation.
    • Ideally, you should also include any relevant information conveyed by ambient sound or vocal tone.
    • Describe anything written in the video as well.
  • Save your work often: this editor does not autosave.
    • Select the Save button in the upper right as you are editing your captions.
    • Your session will time out after about three hours. You will lose your edits if you do not save.

Editing Captions and Extended Audio Descriptions in Kaltura

  1. Launch Chrome or Firefox, go to Kaltura MediaSpace (mediaspace.wisc.edu) or My Media in Canvas.  You must be an owner or co-editor of a video to access the editor for captions or extended audio descriptions. If you need more information on how to log in to MediaSpace please see Kaltura - How to Log in to Kaltura MediaSpace [UW-Madison] .
  2. In MediaSpace, click on your name or the person silhouette icon in the upper right corner and click My Media:
    Screenshot showing the user having clicked their user icon in Kaltura MediaSpace with the cursor hovering over the drop-down menu option "My Media".
  3. In Canvas, click on Account and then Kaltura My Media:
    My Media in Canvas

  4. Search for or scroll until you find the media whose captions you want to edit.
  5. Click on the thumbnail of the media item you want to edit captions.
  6. Click the Actions drop-down menu and select Captions & Enrich:
    A screenshot showing the user having clicked on "Actions" and hovering over "Captions & Enrich" which is outlined in orange.
  7. If your machine captions and/or extended audio descriptions are done processing the Captions Requests window will look like this. Please note, if you see the status as Pending, you will not be able to make edits yet:
    Captions File and EAD File
  8. Click the pencil icon in the Existing Requests window:
    A detail screenshot from the "Captions requests" area of the screen. The pencil icon is outlined in orange.     
  9. The Closed Captions Editor screen will display. See Exploring the Closed Captions and Extended Audio Descriptions Editor, below, for an overview of the different options on the screen.
  10. When you are done editing captions or extended audio descriptions, Kaltura - How to Disable or Enable Captions for Media in MediaSpace [UW-Madison]

Exploring the Captions and Extended Audio Descriptions Editor

Keyboard shortcuts for the Closed Captions and Extended Audio Description Editor:
Player seek 5 seconds backwards: Ctrl ←
Player seek to start of media: Windows - Home | Mac - Command ←
Player pause-play toggle: Spacebar
Player seek 5 seconds forward: Ctrl →
The Kaltura Closed Captions Editor is the interface for editing both captions and extended audio descriptions.
 
    1. Captions drop-down menu: Allows you to select from multiple caption or extended audio description files that may be associated with your media entry.
    2. Search field: Allows you to search for specific text within your captions or extended audio descriptions and replace it with other text. Don't search for a specific term without entering something in the replace field or it will delete the term assuming you want to replace the term you are searching for with a blank space!
    3. Replace button: Pressing the Replace (#3) button will open up two new fields titled "Find Match" and "Replace With." Use the "Find Match" to find terms in your file, then use "Replace with" to replace those terms.
    4. Add speaker to selected items: Allows you to select a caption or extended audio description, enter a speaker's name in this field and then click #4 Add Speaker to the selected caption.
    5. Caption checkbox: Each caption or extended audio description field has a checkbox next to it to indicate that the caption or extended audio description is selected for the Add Speaker function.
    6. Caption start time: The time the caption or extended audio description text will start displaying to the user. You can click in this field to edit the start time for a caption or extended audio description.
    7. Caption end time: The time the caption or extended audio description text will stop displaying to the user. You can click in this field to edit the stop time for a caption or extended audio description.
    8. Caption text: Click into the caption or extended audio description text to edit it.
    9. Trash-can button: Click to remove the caption or extended audio description.
    10. Add or + button: Mouse over the area between two captions or extended audio descriptions for the + to display. The line above is duplicated with the text [COPY] prepended and may be edited.
    11. Playback and skip back and ahead buttons: These are the rollback 5 seconds, Play, and roll forward 5 seconds buttons.
    12. Autoscroll checkbox: Checking will auto scroll the text when playing the media entry.
    13. Revert link: Reverts to the last saved changes.
    14. Save button: Save the modified caption or extended audio description file. Use the save button with some regularity to avoid losing your edits.
    15. Back link: Returns to the media entry. You will receive a warning to the effect of "Changes you made may not be saved" and you will need to click Leave if you have edited captions or descriptions that have not been saved.

See Also


Keywords:
kaltura, machine, caption, subtitle, accessibility, access, modify, edit, improve, REACH, v2 media captions captioning auto generated label 
Doc ID:
92805
Owned by:
Learn@UW in Learn@UW
Created:
2019-07-02
Updated:
2026-10-15
Sites:
DoIT Help Desk, Learn@UW