When Should You Provide Captions & Audio Descriptions to Videos?

There are almost no cases where a video should not at least provide auto captions.  Yet, when should the auto captions be expanded, being vetted further by a human captioner?  When are audio descriptions necessary?  This knowledge base article will answer these questions and provide some clear delineation around what level of captioning is required on a video and when audio descriptions are necessary. 

Definitions

Captions refers to the words shown on a movie, television or computer monitor describing the audio-based information of a video.  Captions go beyond subtitles, which merely narrate macro-audio information of speech/dialogue of the people/characters in the video:

Captions describe when there is relevant micro-audio information, such as noises, sounds, music, etc., that help encompass the robust experience that videos intend to provide:

Closed captions can be turned on/off by the user, whereas open captions are always active. 

Caption quality is derived from the accuracy, placement, synchronization and completeness, which are all best achieved by a human captioner.

Auto Captions are created via Automatic Speech Recognition (ASR) engines. Auto captions are at NIC's disposal if posting a video on Panopto (preferred) and YouTube (for videos intended for a public audience).  While ASR can be very helpful with captioning videos, the accuracy is down around 60-80%, which is not where it needs to be in order to be considered acceptable by the Federal Consumer Commission's standards for captioning (around 95% or higher).  Auto captioning is still a good place to start with every video.

Audio Descriptions refer to an additional track of audio that is synced to a video to explain the visual details, so that a low-to-no vision user can gain full understanding of what is being presented in the video. 
Note: A really great audio description example would be the FROZEN First Look Trailer (URL: https://youtu.be/-WdC4DaYIeQ), and "watching" the first 45 seconds with your eyes closed and make sense of what you are listening to.  Then visit the same video with audio descriptions (URL: https://youtu.be/O7j4_aP8dWA).

Videos that Should Have Auto-Generated Captions

ASR or auto generated captions are sufficient for videos in the following scenarios:

1. Class Recordings for Review/Archive Purposes—Some instructors record classes as a way for students to go back and revisit the lectures covered throughout the quarter.  These videos do not need to be captioned or audio described, unless an accommodation request has been made by the student(s) through the Disability Support Services office.  It is, however, highly recommended to tap into the ASR provided by the video streaming provider used (Panopto or YouTube).
2. Athletic Events—If video of an athletic event with announcers is being streamed, then ASR captions should be provided after the streaming has ended and the video is residing on the video streaming provider.  ASR captions could still be used in the case where a video does not have announcers, but become less necessary. 
3. Athletic Tournaments—This is very similar to the last point, but differs if the organization running the tournament wishes to provide the video streaming.  We still strongly advise the use of ASR captions, once the video streams have ended and reside with the video streaming provider. 

Videos that Must Have Captions/Audio Descriptions

Captioning and/or audio descriptions are applicable, but are not solely limited to videos in the following scenarios:

1. Public—If the videos are for public consumption, such as Board of Trustee meetings, Commencement, marketing/advertising, PSAs, etc., then there is no doubt that captions are necessary.  Audio descriptions are necessary if full understanding of the information presented relies upon the visual imagery presented in the video.
2. All-Staff Training Videos—Some internal videos may be of such great importance that captioning and audio descriptions may be considered necessary in order to ensure that there are no barriers to receiving the information contained therein.  Some examples would include videos around Campus Safety, HR Training Videos, etc.
3. Online Classes—If videos are used to deliver any part of an online course's learning curriculum, then captions and audio descriptions must be available. This includes both internally-created as well as externally-created videos.
4. Video as Part of Course Curriculum—If videos are used as curriculum for a traditional classroom setting, then captions and audio descriptions must be available.
5. Class Recordings for Future Course Curriculum—If the class recording is to be used in future class curriculum, then it is clearly in the same category as #3 and would need to be captioned and/or audio described.
6. Video Archives—In cases where NIC creates a video for archiving (i.e., recorded drama performances), then the video that is archived should include captioning that is encoded onto the video, providing open captions.
7. Accommodation Request--A video that has previously been identified as adequate with auto descriptions can be elevated to require (human) captions if an accommodation request is made through the Disability Support Services office.

Decision Tree

If you are still not sure on what captions are required and if audio descriptions are needed, then use the decision tree below as a guide to determine what accessibility attributes should be included with your video:

Conclusion

Providing captions and audio descriptions for videos will help ensure that people with low to no vision or hearing can have a similar experience with time-based media as users without disabilities.