ODS sends you notice that there is a student in your course that will need "Video Captioning and Audio Transcripts”
The notification you will get from ODS about this accommodation can come in two ways. We will attempt to be proactive where we can. If we know that a student is in your class and is not likely to drop the class we will send you an e-mail about a month before the beginning of the semester specifying that there is a student in your class and that we need to start working on this accommodation. Students at CSU can register for classes up to the Friday of the first week of classes. Student’s do not always register with ODS before the semester starts either. This being the case you may not receive notice of having a student in your class until we send out the Faculty Notification Letters which are prompted by student requests. These first start going out two weeks before the beginning of the semester but you may not receive this until the student requests their accommodations during the semester.
The Language in the Faculty Notification Letter is:
- Video Captioning and Audio Transcripts
- FIRSTNAME requires that all videos and audio materials (including online components) be captioned. Please visit the ODS Media Accessibility Webpages for the instructions for requesting captioned media. Materials have a minimum 7 business day turn around. All videos must be captioned prior to the class having access, please plan accordingly. Should you have questions please contact Bill Milhoan at g.milhoan@csuohio.edu
Organize the Media that you will be using
Since the timelines are 7 to 10 days for returning captioned media we need you to organize the materials that we are using for classes. According to the CSU Accessibility Policy and guidance media cannot be used in a class unless captioned once a student with that accommodation need has been identified. We need to plan this so we cause no disruptions to your course. We need the following information from you to start planning the work.
Check the Media for Captioning
There is a lot of content that is used by professors that already contains captioning. We receive media all the time which professors submit that already has the required captioning. Be careful that any video content that you check has closed captions and not just subtitles. The only place subtitles are acceptable is if the content is conversation driven and the auxiliary sounds in the audio are not relevant. Some times that is a judgement call that only the professor can make because they know what they want the students to learn from the content. Below are some tips on what to look for when checking your media.
- DVD or Blue Ray disks
- Most of these videos will say on the back of the case under the language and subtitle information if they have closed captions or English Subtitles for the Deaf or Hard of Hearing. There is often a CC icon showing that a video is closed captioned. If the case does not specify you can pop the video into a player and either check the language menu off of the main menu or press the Subtitles or CC button on the remote when the video is playing.
- YouTube
- Some YouTube videos have closed captioning. When displaying the video you can turn on the CC feature and display the available captions and subtitles. In most cases the automatically generated English subtitles are not sufficient. This is a nice feature of YouTube but for academic purposes it is usually not accurate enough to present to a student. You can go into the settings dropdown for the video and look under the subtitles menu. In there you can see if the word Auto is next to the track we will most likely need to send it out to be captioned.
- Tegrity and MediaSite
- These are platforms that Cleveland State provides to instructors to poste videos for their courses. These are easy videos to get captioned. If there are captions there will be a CC button available to turn them on. If not you only need to use the platform to submit the request to be captioned. Below are instructions on requesting captions in Tegrity. For MediaSite please consult an instructional designer in eLearning to avoid complications.
- Online Videos
- for many videos online there will be the same CC button to turn on the captions as there are YouTube or Tegrity.
- VHS
- The box for the cassette should have a CC icon on it if the video is captioned. It is far less likely that VHS tapes unless they are blockbusters have closed captioning. If it is a home recording of a TV program it will not have captioning unless the feature was turned on when recording. It is usually easier to purchase a captioned copy on DVD than to send it out to be captioned.
- Audio
- For audio recordings used in class it would be necessary to look for transcripts of the recording. This might come in print with some materials from the publisher or often transcripts can be found for audio programs through the website of the contents creator or publisher.
Inform Disability Services of Media that needs to be captioned.
We want professors to use the online submission form when possible. This being said that form is not available until students have specifically requested their accommodations. Below are the directions for submitting videos through the online system. The information in Steps 5-16 is the information that we need if the media is submitted prior to receiving the Faculty Notification Letter. If we contact you proactively well in advance of the semester please submit that information to Bill Milhoan at g.milhoan@csuohio.edu.
Filling out the Caption Request Form
In these direction for simplicity we are just saying video. Requests for audio files can also be submitted through this form.
You can see the videos that you have submitted by clicking the Current Requests link.
- Log into the Disability Services Instructor Access Online or https://andes.accessiblelearning.com/CSUOhio/Instructor/
- Acknowledge the FERPA Statement
- Click Deaf and Hard of Hearing on the left side of the screen
- Click Submit Video Captioning Request
- Select the class you are submitting the captioning request for and click the Continue to View Request for this Class button
- Confirm the class and student the video request if for and click the Continue button
- Enter the Date or week the video is being used in class
- Type in the video’s title. Please give the entire official title to make it easier to search for captioned copies
- Select the type of media that it is like DVD or YouTube video
- Type in the Source of the video or link we can download it from
- Enter the Year Release which will make it easier to identify proper editions of material
- Enter the length of the video that you will be using
- Specify if you own the rights to the video. This is especially important when using online content. If you have control over the online content we can potentially give you a caption file to load into the system that is hosting your video.
- Select where the media will be used. This will help us choose an appropriate format to return the video to you.
- Specify if you plan to show the entire video. Enter the start and end time in the notes field below
- In the Notes Field enter any important information that we will need to select the correct video or information about how you intend to use the video which could impact how we return it to you.
- Click the Add Video to List button
To Remove a Captioning Request
- Go to the Deaf and Hard of Hearing link on the left side of the page
- Click Current Requests
- Under the class you have requested the video for click the Submit Video Captioning Requests or List All Requests link
- Click the Delete this Video link next to the video that you wish to remove
Requesting Captions for Tegrity Videos
When submitting videos that you have posted on Tegrity all we need for you to submit to us is the name of the course and the name of the videos that you are submitting. The other steps for requesting captions can be completed by you. If we do this you do not need to grant us access to your course in Blackboard.
- Log into Blackboard
- Click on the course
- Click Tegrity Class
- Check the checkbox to all files that you are requesting be captioned
- Hover over Recording Tasks to get the dropdown menu and click Request Captioning
- Click the Continue Button
- Click OK
- Send an e-mail with the course and names of the videos to Bill Milhoan at g.milhoan@csuohio.edu
- Disability Services Staff will Approve your Caption Request
- In 4 to 6 business days a CC button will appear in the Tegrity video player when watching the video
View Requesting Captions in Tegrity on YouTube
ODS Staff will process the request, submit the media to our captioning service, and give the captioned version to you
When you submit your request to ODS we Prioritize the work that needs to be done by the date that it is needed for your course. This is to help us manage our work load and guarantee that we can give you back the accessible version of your media in the stated timeline. We also use the submission information that you give us to see if we can purchase a copy of the media that contains captions. The cost of purchasing a captioned copy of a video is far less than having the media captioned. At times we can purchase a captioned copy of the video for $10-20 where the cost of captioning a video is $150 per media hour.
How we submit the videos and how we give them back to you depends on the following factors.
- When the media is being used in the course
- If the media is being used in the classroom or online
- What the original source of the video is.
Captioning Online Videos
We are not able to caption videos that are on sites we do not have control of. Often it is difficult to get the content provider to respond to request to add captions to videos. In these cases we download the video content and upload it to Tegrity. With Tegrity we can submit the video for captioning through an automated tool and provide access to students to the accessible content. We use tools like SaveFrom.net to download videos from sources like YouTube .to upload to Tegrity.
If you are the owner of the online video through your YouTube account or other video hosting service we can download your video to get captioned and give you the caption file to add to the platform so that students can turn on the closed captioning.
Captioning Hard Copy Videos
If there is not a captioned copy that we can purchase to replace the uncaptioned video we will need you to submit the hard copy for us to digitize and send out for captioning. We will either upload the video to Tegrity or we will burn the video back to a DVD with Open Captions so that you can show the video using the media player in your classroom. We strongly recommend you keep links and DVD’s that we give you with captions for future use.
Show the captioned copy in class or add link to captioned media to the same location as the uncaptioned copy.
If we give you a captioned copy of media that you are using in the classroom do not just give the video to the student and have them watch it outside of class. We are providing this copy so that the student can participate in the class and gain the same experience as the other students. Many people are amazed when they find out how many people actually find the captions useful other than the intended recipient.
We recommend replacing any links that are given to your students with the captioned copy. We do understand that there are reasons why you would like to give the link to the original source content to the students. We would need you in cases where the captioned copy and the original source are in different locations to at least add a link to the captioned copy in the same location as the original source media. For example if you are putting links on your course in Blackboard. Add a link to the captioned copy directly under the link to the original source and labeling it as CC in the title of the link. The same with any e-mails or handouts that you may print and give to students.