Best practices for caption accuracy

An example of craption equal to bad captions

Have you ever seen this hashtag #CaptionsNotCraptions? Craptions are captions that are... crappy. They are bad captions.

Bad captions can be entertaining, but they can be very serious. Captions are a critical tool for lots of people. There are the people learning a new language, the easily confused, and of course captions are essential for people who are Deaf or hard of hearing.
Craptions are usually produced by out-of-date auto-captioning software that doesn’t use artificial intelligence.

AI-based caption software had about a 9% error rate, better than YouTube’s auto-captions but not nearly as good as a captionist.

With the best practices below – the error rate decreases to as low as 5% error rate.

Best Practices:

• Adjust the volume – not too low.
• Always accommodate requests for human captionists.
• Always, always, always check your automatic captions for accuracy.
• Implement the AI-based auto-captions that are built into Google Slides & Microsoft PowerPoint.
• Nonnative English speakers with an accent: Add a textbox to the slide with words that are typically missed with your accent.
• Use a high-quality external microphone rather than using the built-in microphone of your device.
• Reduce the background noise.
• Speak deliberately and clearly.

Check your understanding

If you have a student who requests a disability-related accommodation

The Office of Disability Services helps students get the accommodations they need to provide an equitable educational experience. If you have a student in your course with a documented disability, you can work with the Office of Disability Services to ensure you are providing the accommodations your student(s) need.

For example, if you have a student with a documented disability in your class, you can have your presentation captions by Cielo24. Moreover, if a student reports a disability or needed accommodation to you that is not documented, you can direct them to the Office of Disability Services to get them registered and the support they need.

Did you know?

Only 20% of people who use captions are deaf or hard of hearing.