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Captioning and Interpreting Services

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Established in 2003, WVU's Captioning and Interpreting Team is a nationally-recognized compliance program housed within the Office of Accessibility Services. We provide the following services for students who are Deaf and Hard of Hearing:

  • ASL – Real-time American Sign Language Interpreting
  • Live Captioning – Real-time speech-to-text transcription
  • Closed Captioning – Post-production captions on recorded videos

Student Accommodations

Students who Register with OAS and are authorized for these accommodations will have captioning or interpreting provided according to their course schedules once they have submitted their semester accommodation renewal request through their Student Accessibility Management for Mountaineers (SAMM) account.

In addition to course accommodations, students may also request captioning or interpreting for other academic sessions hosted by WVU, including:

  • Advising appointments
  • Study groups
  • Tutoring sessions
  • Office hours
  • Class review sessions
  • Out-of-class lectures or events

These requests should be made at least one week prior to the academic session or appointment to help ensure that accommodations can be arranged in time for the event.

The Captioning and Interpreting Team provides over 3,000 hours of transcribing and interpreting for WVU students in over 60 different subjects, each year, with an average satisfaction rating of 98%.

Sign Language Interpreting

Sign Language Interpreting facilitates live communication between individuals who do not share the same language by rendering messages from spoken English into American Sign Language and vice versa.

West Virginia University’s Sign Language Interpreters are required to maintain their certification at the national level (NIC) or state level (VQAS Level III or higher). They adhere to the Registry of Interpreters for the Deaf (RID) Code of Professional Conduct.

Are you an interpreter trainee who is interested in making WVU your practicum site? Contact Jason Kapcala for more information!

Live Captioning/TypeWell Transcribing

Live Captioning is a speech-to-text accommodation that occurs in real-time. Trained OAS Captioners create a typed meaning-for-meaning transcript of what is said so that the consumer can follow along and participate in real-time, using a tablet or other device. In most instances, this service is provided remotely.

West Virginia University’s Captioners are trained by TypeWell to capture and relay information at a rate equivalent to 220+ words per minute and have passed the TypeWell Final Skills Check. They adhere to the Association of Transcribers and Speech-to-text Providers (ATSP) Code of Professional Conduct.

Are you a qualified TypeWell Transcriber interested in mentorship? Check out WVU's Transcriber Mentorship Program for more information!

Closed Captioning of Media

Closed Captioning is the process of converting audio into text and displaying that text so that it is synchronized with the original audio/video. Captions not only provide access to narration and dialogue, but also relevant sound effects and musical cues.

Captioning is a time-sensitive process, and OAS will often reach out to faculty directly before the start of the semester and before official accommodation emails have been sent, in order to gather information about course media and to initiate the captioning process.

All media shown online in WVU classes should include appropriate closed captioning. Faculty who will be using media in their online classes or hosting media on a course website (including Blackboard) should reach out to OAS for consultation and captioning support even if they have not received an official accommodation letter for their course.

Audio-only files or de facto audio files (e.g. videos with a black screen, static image, or visual element that does not meaningfully correspond with the spoken content) require a text transcript of all spoken content. This can be posted as a supplementary file. They do not, however, require timed on-screen captions, as there is no meaningful link between the visual content and the audio content.

West Virginia University adheres to the West Virginia University Closed Captioning Quality Guidelines when creating captioned content. Media captioned by OAS is done so in full compliance with the October 2021 United States Copyright Office exemption to Section 1201 Rulemaking of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) (exemptions for which WVU's Captioning and Interpreting Team played an active role in advocating before the United States Library of Congress).

Automated and machine-generated captioning do not meet the standard required for effective academic accommodation.

Are you an eligible student interested in earning work-study credit? Check out OAS’s Work-Study Closed Captioning Unit for more information!

Captioning and Interpreting Policies

No-Shows and Cancellations

Services do not begin until the student arrives at class.

Service providers will wait 15 minutes to hear from the student before leaving or signing off.

Students are responsible for notifying their service provider and/or the Assistant Director of Captioning and Interpreting if there are class schedule changes or if the student will be absent from class.

After the initial Add/Drop period has passed, students who fail to show up to class 3 or more times without notifying OAS beforehand will have services suspended until they communicate their service needs with OAS.

Equipment

Students using remote services are loaned OAS equipment (unless they elect to use their own equipment), including a tablet and a microphone. This equipment will be signed out and returned at the end of each academic year for updating and inventory. Students who do not return their equipment may have a hold placed on their student account.

Service Utilization

Real-time transcribing is a live accommodation and intended to be utilized during class lecture. It is not, however, a suitable replacement for notetaking. As such, we require students to be present in class and connected to the reader feed to receive transcribing services, unless there is a legitimate academic need to be on and off the live feed during part of the class.

Often, transcribing services will not be provided during lab courses, internships, community service projects, exams, asynchronous course, etc., given the non-verbal, self-paced, and/or hands-on nature of those academic sessions. However, students who need services in a non-lecture course can request them, as needed, by contacting Jason Kapcala.

Out-of-Class Events

Students who are authorized for captioning and interpreting accommodations may request a captioner or interpreter for other academic sessions, including advising appointments, study groups, tutoring sessions, office hours, class review sessions, lectures, and other events. These requests should be made at least one week prior to the academic session or appointment to help ensure that accommodations can be arranged in time for the event.

 Place an Out-of-Class Request

Mandatory Reporting

If during the provision of services, a service provider overhears or is signed information pertaining to criminal activity, abuse, threats of suicide, or endangerment of others, they are required to report this information to their supervisor immediately.

If the situation seems like an emergency or is imminently dangerous, they will contact WVU Police and then inform their supervisor.

Transcript Distribution

Transcripts created by OAS for the purpose of student accommodation remain protected property of OAS. OAS only releases class transcripts to students who are registered with our office and authorized to receive them as an academic accommodation. Transcripts are not available for distribution to other campus stakeholders (students, faculty, or staff), except when requested as part of an internal investigation conducted by WVU or when a transcript is subpoenaed as evidence in a legal case.

Transcripts are not to be reproduced, copied, shared, sold, or distributed to any other stakeholder, third party, or website. Violation of this policy will result in termination of services.

Students who have questions about the content of their transcripts may bring those transcripts to their instructors for clarification during office hours, but instructors cannot require that students provide them with copies of their transcripts as a condition of receiving accommodations.

Faculty who wish to commission a transcript of a class or event for personal or professional use, should contact Jason Kapcala.

For more questions about Captioning and Interpreting Services, please visit our FAQ page.

Testimonials from our students

Having transcription services has completely changed my educational experience. Before, I didn't speak up about being hard of hearing. I was embarrassed and afraid to ask for help. It's so nice being able to know what's going on around me I wouldn't be able to participate or learn as effectively without the transcribers. For that, I am so thankful. Thank you for making being successful within my grasp.

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T.W.

Student

The interpreters are wonderful here! The interpreting services I've received this semester were essential to my return on campus. I am extremely grateful to the OAS. OAS has been integral to my education at WVU.

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A.S.

Student

Transcribing Services have helped me tremendously in class. I didn't realize how much information I was missing due to my hearing loss. I started using transcribing this past semester and earned the best GPA I've ever had in college!

M.D.

Student

"Live transcribing enabled me to follow along and participate in my class lectures. As a hard of hearing student, I face multiple listening challenges in the classroom. I struggle with only catching fragments of the material. It is difficult to lip read, listen, process the material, and write notes simultaneously. I frequently miss sections of lectures. This also hinders my ability to participate in real-time class discussions. Live transcribing helps me keep up in the classroom, gather lecture notes, and participate in class discussions simultaneously without having to compromise one or the other. My WVU transcribers were incredibly kind, helpful, patient, friendly, reliable, professional, and did an excellent job transcribing my lectures. They were adaptable to technical difficulties and schedules. I was very grateful and appreciative of all their work. I would recommend that a new student eligible for these services take advantage of transcribing. It is helpful and supports ones success in the classroom. It is better to discover how it can help than to keep struggling. The student can also change their mind later and decline the services."

—E.P. (Student)

"The transcribing services offered at WVU are amazing! If I did not had these services for my education, I believe it would’ve added a lot more stress and anxiety on my behalf. Straining yourself to try and be able to hear your professor speak, while trying to take notes, as well as pay attention is hard/stressful when you have hearing loss. These services lowered my anxiety and stress about receiving the important information I needed to achieve academic excellence. I don’t believe I would’ve been able to focus as well, or get all of the information needed for my notes if I did not have these services. The transcribers that I have had are sincerely some of the most helpful people I have crossed paths with here at WVU. They have always been super helpful and polite if there was any issue to come to light. I do believe there is a huge difference when working with staff transcribers versus and third party. It’s always a great feeling to know you have someone you can call, as well as to meet them in person. I have been able to meet some of my transcribers face to face, and this ensured me that I was cared for, and that I could they will do the best of their ability to help me out. My advice would be to reach out and have a conversation with the transcribing services. It is better to have transcriptions there, because sometimes you don’t realize when you do not hear something. The captioning was a simple solution to realizing you didn’t understand the professor, or didn’t hear them. You simply look down and see what you missed and go on with your lecture. I would highly recommend utilizing these services for anyone who may need them!"

—J.W. (Student)

"I am a student who is profoundly deaf that uses a variety of accommodations across my classes. Live transcription from the OAS has been a crucial service for my academic success. Live transcription as an accommodation was a foreign concept to me prior to my time at WVU; it was never made available in my K-12 schools. I didn't quite understand what transcription was before my freshman year and now it is my opinion that it is an essential accommodation for the D/deaf and hard of hearing in a lecture style class. Pursuing higher education as an individual with hearing loss poses a variety of challenges. A significant challenge, in my experience, is listening fatigue (i.e., the tiredness associated with comprehending lectures using residual hearing, lipreading, or sign language interpreting). I am exhausted 20 minutes into any lecture regardless of how ideal the listening environment and speaker is, or how familiar/prepared I am with the material. Having access to a live transcript allows me to be selective in how I follow the lecture and essentially does away with listening fatigue. Even if an individual with hearing loss could follow class using residual hearing or lipreading, understanding speech can be so taxing that there is little energy left for understanding the covered concepts. If the room has bad acoustics, the lecturer is difficult to understand, or if a mask is worn, live transcription is my only way to understand class. I use a variety of accommodations from the OAS but live transcription has been the most essential for my lecture-style classes. I am thankful that OAS encouraged me to try transcription my freshman year, otherwise I might not have. Individuals with hearing loss have such inequitable access to any lecture. Live transcription helps bridge that gap. I would not have gotten as much value out of my classes without this accommodation. It is hard to focus on concepts when you are just trying to understand the spoken language. All of the WVU transcribers are wonderful to interact with, professional, and skillful. My experience with third-party transcribers has generally been good but I prefer the WVU transcribers because they are more familiar to me. They know what to expect from my courses and it is easier to get class resources for them like presentation slides or handouts. Last semester, in a neuroscience class that OAS transcribed for, I was able to follow and participate in class that covered 'cerebellar fractured somatotopy' and the 'nigrostriatal pathway between the substantia nigra pars compacta and dorsal striatum.' The OAS transcriber had no issues with the lecture since we were able to provide them with the class slides. Any student who is eligible for these services absolutely needs to try them. I was not aware of the benefit of live transcription before WVU. There is no harm or detriment to the student for utilizing transcribing."

—A.S. (Student)

"As a Hard of Hearing individual and as a 100% online student, the live transcribing services were crucial to my success in each class. I rely on lip-reading and most of the times, the professors were not visible as they would share their screen with the class material. Without the live transcribing services, I wouldn’t have been able to understand the class material. The transcribers were truly amazing. They were always on time, always ready, which was very nice. I don’t think I can recall when there was a staff transcriber or a third-party transcriber. The Live Transcribing services at WVU are a critical resource. Not everyone in the Deaf and Hard of Hearing community uses sign language and having the live transcription available for those individuals is necessary. Further, with more and more online classes being offered each semester, live captioning is a necessity for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing community looking to further their education."

—P.R. (Student)

"Transcribing services is a big part as to why I was able to excel in all my classes academically.  They made it extremely beneficial to look over the class transcript in case there  was something I might have missed. If I did not have these accommodations, I do believe I  would have struggled greatly which would have affected my grades. I had all positive experiences with each and every transcriber that I have had in the 4 years of being here. There was always great communication and understanding which is something you might not get with third party vendors."

—G.T. (Student)