Captions are text versions of any dialogue presented within multimedia and allow the content of web audio and video to be accessible to those who cannot hear the audio. Advanced planning is crucial to making both instructional and non-instructional multimedia accessible in a timely manner. The captioning of video/audio materials allows equal access to the semantic content of spoken dialog for students who are deaf/hard of hearing.
Closed-captioning means that the captions may be toggled on and off, and open-captioning means that the captions stay on.
Students
Students should first discuss captioned media accommodations with their DPRC Disability Specialist. After review and approval by a Disability Specialist, the student should request media captioning through myDPRC for each class they would like to use this accommodation in. To learn more about how to make this accommodation request, please visit the myDPRC training portal. Once requested, DPRC will automatically caption all videos used in a student’s course. If captions are not enabled for videos shown in class, please let your Disability Specialist know as soon as possible.
Faculty
An instructor with a student in their course approved for a caption media accommodation will receive an email notification so they may request media captioning for their instructional materials. Instructional materials include:
- Online streaming content from web sites, such as YouTube.
- Physical media, such as movies on VHS/DVD.
- Instructor-created video lectures and home movies.
- CourseStream courses.
We ask that faculty submit captioning requests as soon as they are notified of the need. For one-off requests, the Accessible Media Program can return a captioned version in under a week. Larger and more complex requests may take more time. Please provide an accurate show date so we may focus on higher priority videos.
Requesting Media Captioning
Faculty may submit a captioning request using the Media Captioning Request Form.
- To caption a personal or departmental copy of media, it will need to be delivered to AT Media Distribution Services in Library 85 after submitting a captioning request.
- Once captioning is complete, faculty will be notified via email and both the original media and captioned media can be picked up from Library 85. You may receive separate emails for each step of the process.
- Special arrangements can be made for instructors who are using the CourseStream (MediaSite) system run by Academic Technology.
Instructors leveraging media in their courses are encouraged to use versions that are already captioned whenever possible. One source, that is available exclusively to SF State faculty, is the SF State Video Catalog, which contains over 18,000 titles. If a catalog item is not already captioned, please submit a media captioning request.
For additional information or further assistance, contact us at captions@sfsu.edu.