A Guide to Planning Accessible Meetings

Captioning Audio/Visual Materials

The best way to use captioned audio/visual materials is to purchase or use videos that already have closed captions. If this is not possible or videos must be produced in-­house, there are several services that will add captions to videos. There are also online programs that can be used to add captions to videos.

If there is absolutely no way to have the video captioned, it is best not to use it. However, if a video without captions must be used, a sign language interpreter or speech-­to­-text service provider may be able to convey the message from the video. In these cases the service provider should be given an opportunity to view the video prior to the meeting.

Resources for Captioning Videos

There are many companies that provide captioning services, for example:

• VITAC provides a variety of accessible media services, including live or prerecorded captioning and audio description.

• Captionmax provides a variety of media services including closed captioning, real-time captioning, and video description.