Captioning is an essential accommodation that improves access to spoken and auditory content. Captioning is most frequently mediated in one of three ways: manually in real time, via a service called CART (Communication Access Real-time Translation); automatically in real time, via AI-driven speech recognition software; and lastly, as subtitles added in post-production for multimedia. A CART FAQ is available for more information, and the MSU Resource Center for Persons with Disabilities (RCPD) maintains a guide about CART and other auditory-related accommodations for the Deaf and Hard-of-Hearing.
The MSU Libraries are committed to accessible virtual meetings/events and to supporting staff with CART/captioning resources and funding. A budget for CART/captioning has been approved for the 2020-21 year and the Libraries Accessibility Working Group provides captioning training/resources and consultation (lib.dl.accessibility@msu.edu).
The information in the following sections will hopefully clarify whether captions/CART should be provided and if so, who is responsible for ordering, paying for, and coordinating CART/captioning services.
The MSU Libraries has many different types of meetings and events. Meetings/events with an accommodation request must have captioning/CART. Many other types of meetings (all staff, open to the public, large groups, and certain others) should proactively have captioning/CART as much as possible as part of the Libraries' commitment to accessible meetings. Small, internal meetings most likely don't need CART, but may want to experiment with machine generated captioning.
The Libraries Accessibility Working Group welcomes any suggestions, feedback, or questions about the procedures and content on this page.
| Meeting Type | CART Ordering Responsibility | CART Cost Responsibility | CART Communication Responsibility |
|---|---|---|---|
| Small Group/Unit Meetings | Individual with SEAD/accommodation | Libraries (Business Office) | If online, Zoom meeting host and individual; if in person, individual |
| Library All Staff Meetings & Candidate Presentations | Library (most cases DMC) | Libraries (Business Office) | If online, Zoom meeting host; if in person, DMC staff |
| Library-Wide Vendor Presentations | Library responsible for notifying Vendor CART is needed. Library can assist Vendor if they don’t have a CART source. | Vendor | If online, Zoom meeting host; if in person, DMC staff |
Internal library meetings and event recordings are posted to the MSU Libraries Staff Intranet Media channel on Kaltura MediaSpace. Vincent Voice Library (VVL) staff upload the final videos and correct the transcripts as necessary.
When CART captions or transcripts are available for a recorded meeting, those captions will serve as the final transcript in Kaltura.
When no transcripts or captions are available, VVL staff will generate an automated transcript from Kaltura and correct that as staff time allows.
| Meeting Type | CART Ordering Responsibility | CART Cost Responsibility | CART Communication Responsibility |
|---|---|---|---|
| University Affiliated Events | Individual with accommodation request or Event Host/Group | Event Host/Group (If Library is co-host, split costs) | If online, Zoom meeting host and individual; if in person, individual or event host/group |
| Workshops & Public Events | Individual with accommodation request or Library/event host if proactive (no individual request) | Libraries (Business Office) or event host | If online, Zoom meeting host and individual; if in person, individual or library/event host |
| Information Literacy Sessions | Student/Individual with accommodation works with RCPD as they would for other course sessions | (Not Libraries) | If online, Zoom meeting host and individual/RCPD; if in person, individual/RCPD |
| Recordings/Tutorials (asynchronous) for Public/Students |
Individual/Group producing recording/tutorial - captions can be auto-generated and corrected manually or in some cases, ordered via a 3rd party captioning provider. |
Varies. 3rd-party captions will require an account and must be approved. Requests should be sent to the Libraries Accessibility Working Group (lib.dl.acccessibility@msu.edu) - they will work with Accounting Office if approved. | N/A |
| Library Social Media Videos/Communications | Communications Team - Libraries Accessibility Working Group/Student Accessibility Employees available to assist | Communications Budget/Library Account | N/A (unless live event/communication) |
Automated captions are not accurate enough to meet VISA or SEAD requirements, but offer the potential to help improve the accessibility of live presentations or meetings.
When you use these services, your audio data is sent to servers for processing, but generally is not stored. Automatically generated captions are subject to inaccuracies and biases from the algorithms and data used to produce them, and these errors may be distracting, confusing, or unwelcome. Let meeting participants know that captions are being generated by an automated service and may not be accurate.
Zoom has added the ability to provide live automated captions via Otter.ai as a pilot. Each meeting host must enable the automated captions for the meetings they host. For instructions on how to enable live captions, follow the directions below or view this tutorial on enabling live captions.
Log in to Zoom with your NetID and password at https://msu.zoom.us.
In the side menu, click "Settings" and find the section about Closed Captioning under Meetings > In Meeting (Advanced).
Toggle "Closed Captioning" on. After closed captioning is on, an option will appear for live transcripts. Check the box "Enable live transcription service to show transcript on the side panel in-meeting" and click Save.
Now when you host a meeting, there will be a button at the bottom of the Zoom screen that says "Live Transcripts." To turn on live captions, click that button and select "Enable Auto Transcription."
Please note, the host must turn on “Enable Auto Transcription” to enable other users to also access this feature.
If you screen share a PowerPoint or Google Slides presentation on Zoom, you can use the built-in automated captioning features of those services to display captions on your slides.
Live Captions with Microsoft PowerPoint
You can edit the position and appearance of captions in the subtitle settings (text and background color, size, etc.)
Present Google Slides with Captions
You can change text position and size with Google Slides.
MSU ITS makes Microsoft Teams available to all employees as part of the Spartan 365 Microsoft office services. ITS has enabled the automated live caption option for video calls for MSU Libraries employees.
MS Teams does not save a transcript of the live captions.
There is not currently a way to edit the appearance of live captions.
Automated captions should be generated for all video or audio files with a spoken language component the first time they are uploaded to Kaltura MediaSpace if those files do not have another more accurate source of captions or transcripts. After the captions are automatically generated, you have the option to manually correct the captions.
The Vincent Voice Library generates and remediates captions for anything with a staff-wide audience and without a CART transcript. If the audience is smaller than "staff-wide" the VVL will generate captions when the video is posted, but only remediate them on request. The VVL transcript project may be able to assist with library content uploaded to MediaSpace - contact Mike Laney for more information: laneymic@msu.edu.
The Libraries also has a fund for assisting with captioning if necessary; contact the Libraries Accessibility Working Group (lib.dl.acccessibility@msu.edu) to request assistance with captions on material uploaded to MediaSpace.