What is Captioning?

Video captioning refers to the process of creating a text version of speech and non-speech content in video/audio content. This text is shown in real time on the screen and is synchronized with audio content.

There are two types of captioning: closed captioning and open captioning. Closed captioning gives the user the option to turn the captioning on and off. Open captioning is burned into the video, so there is not an option to turn the captioning off. This is important because the type of captioning can affect how the captioning is created and displayed. Closed captioning is typically the preferred version of captioning since it gives the user flexibility in how they consume content. 

A video with closed captioning actually consists of two files that are simultaneously being run by a video player: a video file and a captioning file. In essence, a captioning file is a time-coded transcript that tells the video player when to display blocks of text, which show up as captions on the video screen. The most commonly accepted captioning file types are .srt and .vtt files. 

Automatic or autogenerated captioning is a great place to start when starting through the captioning process, but automatic captioning needs to be remediated for accuracy. This means that a human user needs to review the content and correct any mistakes in the captioning. Remediation would include ensuring that there is proper capitalization and punctuation, all words are correct, and all non-speech sounds are captured in the captioning.

When is Captioning Required?

In short, captioning is required for any prerecorded or live video content. That said, UCF does not currently have centralized support services to offer employees consistent corrected captioning for all live video content. For this reason, for the interim, it is recommended that platforms with an automatic captioning option are utilized for live video. Among many other platforms, both Zoom and Teams support automatic captioning for live video.

Best Practices

Below are some best practices to consider when captioning video content. 

• Text is synchronized with audio content
• All audio is captured (including sounds and music)
• Speakers are identified
  • If speaker names are unknown, speakers should be given a number that is consistent throughout the video (e.g., Speaker 1, Speaker 2, etc.)
• Captioning should be remediated so that the grammar is as accurate as possible
  • Captioning
  • Punctuation
  • Spelling
• Styling
  • No more than 2 lines of text should be shown on screen at one time
  • Text must be on screen long enough for the viewer to be able to read them
  • Text color and background color should be adjusted to contrast with video screen 
  • Captions should not overlay important content 
    • Bottom center is the most common placement for captions 

Examples