Accessibility
Overview
As part of Highline’s mission to create equitable pathways in higher education to close opportunity gaps experienced by our students, we strive to ensure that technology used for learning provides substantially similar functionality, user experience, and information access to individuals with disabilities as provided to others. This means that both the tools, and the content we create for those tools, must be accessible.
EdTech partners with Access Services to support accessibility.
Come visit us at SETI, or book a one-on-one appointment with us for help with making your courses accessible.
Accessible Technology How-Tos
Making materials for your courses accessible and user friendly supports all learners in your classroom.
Learn more about making your course materials accessible:
Highline College Accessible Tech - Accessible Technology How-to Guides
Checking your Canvas Course's Accessibility Score using Ally
How to check courses for accessibility (link to Remote Teaching Accessibility module)
Video Captioning
Captioning videos allows increased access to course material (and is part of the faculty contract).
What tools are available for captioning?
Panopto
Panopto has a very good automated caption system, and fixing errors in those captions is straightforward. The captions will display inside the Panopto video player when they are completed. Panopto works best if you do not need to do significant edits to the video or are recording whole lectures.
Camtasia
Camtasia allows more flexibility to edit videos and add special features. Camtasia has a great editing tool, the ability to add highlights, obscure parts of the screen, and more. These videos are more polished compared to Panopto videos. In addition, you can upload/play them from your Canvas course, Panopto, YouTube, etc. Camtasia videos can be captioned in the Camtasia editing tool, or after they are created.
From your Panopto account, press the +Create button and upload your media (the Camtasia video)
Live Captioning in Zoom
Zoom has the capability to live-caption the meeting. It has been auto-enabled by Highline College. Participants can show and hide captions for themselves. They can also select to see the transcript of the meeting in a side panel. But, the transcript only starts once someone has requested to show captions.
For students who have a letter of accommodation that specifies live captions, Zoom captions may not be sufficient. Please contact Access Services to discuss the best captioning option for your course and context.
Pro-tip:
In your Zoom settings, under accessibility, select Always show captions. This ensures that captioning starts as soon as you enter any meeting, your own or made by someone else.
Canvas Media Tool
The video recording tool in the Canvas Rich Content Editor works best for short videos that are used to give feedback to students. Videos created in this tool are difficult to caption. The best use of this tool is specific video feedback to specific students. To use this option, click on the video options on the video you made, scroll down to the supported file type, and select the choose caption file. You will need already have the SRT or VTT file for this video. Click the Save button. This Canvas Support Page can give additional information on this feature.
For all other cases, we recommend using one of the tools above, then upload the video and captions into Canvas.
Other video tools
There are a number of other video tools available, for instance iMovie, Screencast-o-matic, etc.. Check the support information for that tool to see how captioning is supported. If you aren't able to add captions there, Upload the video to Panopto and use Panopto's auto captioning.
Not sure where to start? E-mail Us et@highline.edu and we'll point you in the right direction.
How to caption videos I created
Since you created the video, you own the rights and should be able to add captions to it. The specific process will be different depending on how you created it.
Before you proceed, there are three questions you should consider:
How long is the video? If it's short - like 2-3 minutes, it's probably best to create the captions using the instructions below.
How soon do you need it? If the answer is "right now", it's probably best to create the captions as well. It can take anywhere from 4 days to 2 weeks to work with our captioning service.
Is it really an emergency (like, you just got an accommodation letter)? E-mail Us and we can work through the options.
Panopto
You can upload the video to Panopto, which will help caption video for you. While the automatic captions are pretty good, you still need to review and edit the captions for accuracy. See the Panopto section of this website or this Panopto tutorial for support.
Request Captions from CaptionHub
CaptionHub is a portal to submit videos for captioning by the college's service provider. This often works best for technical material or if you are meeting the needs of an accommodation request.
Email et@highline.edu to be added to the CaptionHub program. The Course is here.
Follow the instructions in CaptionHub to request captions for the video.
Once you are notified that the captions are complete, review the video to verify the accuracy of the content.
Upload the captions to the video (using the instructions from CaptionHub).
Please note that it takes time for this service, so this is something you need to plan ahead for.
Youtube Videos You Own
You'll need access to the YouTube account in which the video is uploaded for these options to work. Remember, if you didn't create and upload the video, check the instructions for videos you don't own.
Transcribe or use a script and then use automatic timing
Upload the video and
This option works very well if you have a written script for your presentation, or with shorter videos (under 3-5 minutes). YouTube's transcription tool will automatically pause the video while you type, then restart once you've entered the text. In addition, YouTube will set the timings of the captions automatically.
If you created your video from the script, paste the text of your script into the transcription box instead of typing it in.
If you have a video, and a separate caption file, you can upload captions to YouTube.
If your video has automatic subtitles, use the same process to view the subtitles and edit them for accuracy.
Learn more here
Camtasia
Camtasia has a powerful caption creation and editing tool built in. Even if you haven't created the video with Camtasia, you can import it into a project and caption it. The easiest way to caption Camtasia videos is to export them to .mp4, import them into Panopto, and use the Panopto automated captions.
For PC/Windows
Camtasia offers several methods for captioning the video. Choose the one which best matches your situation:
Synchronize them with a script, if you create your Camtasias with a script
Use Camtasia's Speech-to-Text Tool
For Mac
Canvas Media Tool
It can be difficult to caption videos created in Canvas' Media Tool. We recommend using another tool such as Camtasia or Panopto to create and caption the videos, then upload them to Canvas. If you already have videos that were recorded in Canvas, see the instructions below.
Other video production tools
If you use other tools to create your video, check the support information for guidance about captioning. Alternatively, upload the video to Panopto, then use the instructions above for captioning.
I didn't create the video - Can I still caption?
Videos owned by someone else cannot be copied or altered without permission, and this includes adding captions. There are different processes we follow for captioning these materials. Some examples of this type of video include:
A YouTube video that someone else created, but didn't caption.
A rip of a commercially produced video.
Video streamed from another service (such as Vimeo or PBS), or a video database accessed through the library.
Captioning YouTube, Vimeo, etc. that you don't own
Sometimes the easiest solution in this situation is to see if there is a captioned version available, or another video that meets your objectives. Contact the Library Reference Desk for help searching the college's streaming video databases.
If you are not the creator of the video, you may need to get permission to caption the videos. Not all situations are covered by Fair Use, either. There is no easy yes-or-no answer regarding permission or Fair Use.
E-mail Us for help with making a determination about whether permission is required for your particular case.
Captioning other videos
By law, most commercial videos should be captioned, including those provided by the publishers of your textbooks. Below are some tips for ensuring your commercially provided videos are captioned:
Directly request captioned versions of textbook videos from publishers. They should be able to provide this. Point out that you can't use their book if they don't have captioned video.
Get a confirmation from publisher representatives when reviewing textbooks. You can even give them a hard copy of this document.
Use sources that provide captioned videos, such as Films on Demand, Academic Video Online, and Kanopy, all available in our Library.
Contact the Library Reference Desk for help finding captioned videos. This is especially helpful for a DVD or VHS that you have that does not have captions
Contact the Help Desk to learn to display captions on classroom computers.
Please note that the college does not pay to caption commercially produced videos (e.g. Rogue One, the latest Frontline episode).
Not sure where to start? E-mail Us and we'll point you in the right direction.
Other FAQs about Captioning
Which videos require captions?
Captioning videos is legally required for almost all situations at the college. There are a number of good reasons to ensure that videos used in your class are captioned:
It's necessary for students who are deaf or hearing impaired to participate in the class.
It helps students who may be watching your videos in noisy (and quiet) settings (e.g. the bus, at home after everyone else is asleep, at work, etc.);
It's culturally responsive - English Language Learners can often use the captions to better understand your materials; and
It's legally required for accessibility.
Which videos don’t require captioning?
There are a few cases where captions may prove impractical. However, if a student has a letter of accommodation, you must caption all videos that student will be using, even if they are considered optional to the class.
Response to a single student or small in-class group of students, for instance personalized feedback on an assignment directed at a single student.
Full lecture capture videos (e.g. Panopto) that are only going to be used for that one quarter (if no student letter of accomodation requires captioning). Faculty must caption videos by the third quarter, if they are used recurrently.
But that's too much work!
It is some work. Consider the benefits, though, to students at Highline, so many of whom benefit from the addition of captions to videos. And, we have lots of resources to help!
What about videos in my textbooks?
Contact the publisher, and directly request captioned versions of the videos in their textbook resources.
They should be able to provide this.
Point out that you can't use their book if they don't have captioned video.
If you're reviewing books, get a confirmation in writing from the publisher representatives that all resources are accessible. You can even give them a copy of this document.
My DVD or VHS video does not have captions. Who can help?
Contact the Reference Librarians for assistance with finding a captioned version or replacement.
What's involved in captioning a video?
Captioning a video is basically a three-step process:
Create a transcript of the video
Synchronize the words in the transcript to the video
Publish the captions with the video
Look above at the instructions for captioning a video
Why do I need to get permission to caption a video?
In some cases, we need to make a copy of the video, and then stream it either from within Canvas or the college's streaming server. In those cases, it's best to get permission, since making that copy may not be covered by Fair Use. There is no easy yes-or-no answer regarding permission or Fair Use.
E-mail Us for help with making a determination about whether permission is required for your particular case.
See the I didn't Create the Video - Can I still caption? section for more guidance
Do my videos already have captions?
By law, most commercial videos should be captioned, including those provided by the publishers of your textbooks. Below are some tips for ensuring your commercially provided videos are captioned:
First, check to see if the video you are using is already captioned.
Turn on captions by clicking on the icon in the lower right corner of most video players.
Watch at least five minutes of the video with captions turned on. Many YouTube videos will show captions, but the captions were created using a voice-recognition tool. The result is often badly garbled text. Often this is not evident until several minutes into the video.
If it's not:
Directly request captioned versions of textbook videos from publishers. They should be able to provide this. Point out that you can't use their book if they don't have captioned video.
Check out sources that provide captioned videos, such as Films on Demand from the Library. Learn more about library video databases.
Contact the Library Reference Desk for help finding captioned videos.
Event Accessibility
If you are hosting an event, spending time thinking about access and accessibility is critical to creating an inclusive and supportive space. Spend some time planning and building from these resources.
Question not answered here?
Drop in on SETI - see the EdTech Events calendar
Contact us at et@highline.edu