Good practice regarding audio/video material:
- Captioning benefits deaf and hard of hearing individuals, non-English speakers, those with learning disabilities, visual learners and all users in a noisy environment
- Captions and transcripts make audio material searchable.
- What's the difference? View more information explaining Captions, Transcripts, and Audio Descriptions.
- Departments should purchase only audio/video materials that include captioning.
- University departments that create audio/video content should include plans for captioning as a part of the original production. This includes building the cost of captioning into the project's budget.
- Projects that are created using a script can be captioned inexpensively, and it is generally less expensive to add captions from the onset rather than adding them after the fact when a request is received. Contracting with a professional firm to complete the captioning is recommended. View vendor information and tools and tutorials.
- Note: Don't forget, public videos posted by UArizona must be captioned.
Captioning improves user experience
- Accessibility and Online Video Statistics
- "A Rising Tide: How Closed Captions Can Benefit All Students"
- "Examining the Educational Benefits of and Attitudes toward Closed Captioning Among Undergraduate Students"(PDF)
- "How Video Accessibility Improves UX and SEO"
Next steps
- View UArizona standards and guidelines for captioning.
- Use our Captioning Decision Guide for information and resources.
- View UArizona captioning vendors.
- View how to add captions to your media.
- Learn about real-time and auto-generated caption options.