Accessible (Captioned) Media

Why Do We Caption Videos?

Captioned videos allow equal access to the content for students who are deaf and hard of hearing. Captions are text displayed on the screen to represent what is being said as well as important sound cues. Spoken words in the video are captioned verbatim.

Federal laws (such as the Americans with Disabilities Act) require this accommodation for eligible individuals.

In order for media with an auditory component to be accessible for students who are deaf/hard of hearing, Disability Services (ODS) will caption to a copy of the media that was originally produced without captions.

What Faculty Should Expect at the Beginning of the Term

EARLY NOTIFICATION OF ACADEMIC SUPPORT SERVICES EMAIL

This email is sent to faculty when eligible students register with ODS online services. It provides information about the kinds of accommodations for which the student is eligible and requests information about videos that the faculty member plans to show in class during the term.

Deaf and Hard of Hearing Video Reminder Letter

If faculty do not respond to the Early Notification email, a reminder email will be sent by ODS. The process of adding captions to videos is time-intensive and is done off campus. Faculty are encouraged to respond promptly as this will allow ODS to have the captioning process completed by the planned view date.

If faculty Do NOT intend to show videos

Faculty response is greatly appreciated even if they do not plan to show any media in class.

If no response is given ODS will continue to reach out to the faculty to make sure there are no uncaptioned videos.

If faculty do intend to show videos

It is recommended that faculty verify that the video(s) have or do not have captions. There are a few different ways to gather this information.

Determining whether a video has captions or not

• Hardcopies of videos (DVD’s, Blu-Ray’s)

Videos that are closed-captioned often have the symbol "CC" displayed inside a black square on the box of the video.

• Online video content

Most online media players have an option to turn on closed captions. There is generally a button that can be clicked to turn captions on. The button will have the “CC” symbol. Please note that many YouTube videos have the option to display “Automatic Captions”. This is not an acceptable accommodation because of its high inaccuracy. ODS recommends that faculty follow the instructions in the captioning notification email and provide ODS with links to the media for inspection.

VIDEOS WITHOUT CAPTIONS

Once a video has been determined to not have acceptable/no captions, ODS will begin the process of getting a captioned copy made. This is a time intensive process and requires adequate time for ODS to complete. It is imperative that faculty start communicating with ODS as soon as possible after receiving the captioning notification email.

Accessible Media

In order to ensure access to instructional materials, all media must be captioned when being shown in classes in which students who are deaf/hard of hearing are enrolled. If faculty receives an email from ODS regarding a student eligible for captioned media, faculty should contact ODS as soon as possible. ODS will have captions added to a copy of the media, but the process is time-intensive and generally requires a minimum of two weeks or more to complete a one-hour video/DVD.

Please contact ODS @ disabilityservices@xula.edu or 504-520-7607 for additional information.