WVU's Closed Captioning Unit offers free, professional closed captioning for recorded media. This includes captioning of video content for academic courses, events, meetings, and websites.
Stats
1 in 25 college students identify as Deaf of Hard of Hearing. Statistically we know that there may be more than 50 additional students on WVU's campus at any time who are Hard of Hearing but have not disclosed their Disability for one reason or another (including some who don’t realize they are hard of hearing)
Over 4% of West Virginia’s total state population is Deaf. This is the highest percentage in the United States.
97% of instructors say that they use or assign videos regularly in their classes.
41% of videos are incomprehensible without sound or captions.
92% of videos are watched without sound on.
80% of students who use captions regularly are not Deaf or Hard of Hearing.
66% of videos without captions are watched to the end, as compared to 91% of videos with captions. Video captions have also been strongly linked to increased engagement, recall, and memory quality.
Purpose
The OAS Closed Captioning Unit works to create high-quality professional captions for hundreds of hours of media housed on WVU websites and/or used in WVU courses. Captioning requests associated with active student accommodations are prioritized; however, this unit also provides free captioning support for WVU stakeholders in support of proactive Universal Design.
This program trains and employs WVU work-study students part-time and in a remote environment, providing them an opportunity to gain professional experience while earning work-study credit. To date, the Closed Captioning Unit has resulted in WVU students earning close to $60,000 in federal financial aid each academic year.
Standards
State and Federal law requires that all media hosted on a WVU website (including course platforms like eCampus) be effectively captioned. West Virginia University Office of Accessibility Services has established the West Virginia University Closed Captioning Quality Guidelines, a set of standards for accessible media in higher education to ensure effectiveness. While "captioning mills" and other vendors claim 97-99% accuracy on their captions with results that fail to live up to their billing, WVU's in-house Captioning Unit adheres to these professional quality standards when creating captioned media.
See the difference:
Human Created Closed Captions:
Student: I always thought twice exceptional, in my mind, at least, meant one of those genius computer hackers like Bill Gates who was able to start companies, or hack into the Pentagon, or just do something really cool, but didn’t know what to do when stuck into a social situation.
To me, twice exceptional has always meant somebody really smart who's just not very good at parties.
Teacher: OK.
Student: Do not buy Apple.
Teacher: Why?
Student: Because Samsung Galaxy destroyed it. As soon as a new product comes out, it's going to be temporarily good. That's when you have to sell it, the second a new product comes out. What's the next product that's going to come out?
Student: I feel that that term “twice exceptional” means a student who is exceptional but who has talents, who has abilities, who has something that they're very, very good at, something they’re very driven to do. But they also have a lot of challenges along the way.
[♪ Bass guitar ♪]
[♪ Music plays ♪]
Student: Life was something I was scared of. I was just extremely anxious, and the copious amounts of medication didn't help either. I was in the car as a little kid, and I'd feel the bass, and that was something I really wanted: physical interaction with music. Bass kind of really filled that.
Student: What brought me to Bridges? Basically, making sure I knew why I was doing science. I interviewed, and I met some of the students, and it clicked that that was me, basically. I was quirky. I have ADD. I have ADHD. I'm dyslexic. I was always put in Special Ed classes, and they just thought I wasn't bright enough, but it was just because I read differently. I need to learn differently. It doesn't mean I wasn't smart. So coming to Bridges made me feel like I'm paying it forward.
Student: When I first got to the school, I assumed everyone was going to be retarded, and weird, and awkward, and quiet. That I was going to sit in a cafeteria and everyone would be sitting at their own table, not looking at each other. And that anytime I made eye contact with someone, they were going to try and throw a stapler at me.
But then I got here, and it was just other kids that were intelligent and were pretty much normal.
Machine-Generated Auto-Captions:
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what they tell us that not only that somebody to release liar who is just not very good part ofthe men who lack, so has announced
it's only a few who have left and I have a hint that the current constitutional means a student who is
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when I first had his license to the retarded and you'd have a client has said cafeteria and
everyone would be sitting at the table not looking at each other.
and anytime any eye contact with someone during the transfer was the plan that I got here as the teams that went on seats and wine
production normal kids can see a question of where CSUN's boring and their rights as boring
it's still today we send to the states to going into this classroom listings and the lease had
Media captioned by OAS is done so in full compliance with the United States Copyright Office exemption to Section 1201 of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA).
Faculty: How to Submit Requests
To submit a media captioning request, please follow these steps:
- Share media with the Captioning Unit by contacting
Kelly Barnard. This can be done the following ways:
- Emailing URLs
- Allowing access to media stored on platforms like Google Drive or Dropbox
- Transferring files via Mediasite
- Include the following information in your correspondence:
- Course information (number, section, instructor name and contact info)
- Video names
- Show dates (these will be used to prioritize requests)
- When captioning is complete, there are two possible final products:
- An SRT file containing the new captions can be provided. You can upload this file to the original video on the hosting platform of your choice (YouTube, Vimeo, etc.). Captions will remain in place as long as the videos are stored on that platform.
- A new URL with professional captions can be provided. (This is useful in cases where you do not own the rights to the original video that you wish to show and are therefore unable to log in to the hosting platform to modify it.)
For tips on selecting videos and using accessible media, see our Faculty Resources page.
Students: Apply Today!
Gain professional experience and make a difference in the lives of WVU students!
WVU’s Office of Accessibility Services seeks students with strong spelling and grammar skills and attention to detail to serve as Closed Caption Editors for students who are Deaf and Hard of Hearing. With the guidance of experienced OAS Transcribers, the Closed Caption Editor will edit closed captions for WVU media content to ensure that they are accurate and properly timed. This is a great resume builder. Training is provided. Work is currently done remotely.
Requirements:
- Excellent spelling and grammar skills
- Strong attention to detail
- Ability to work independently
- Ability to follow precise guidelines and instructions
- Ability to quickly navigate web-based software
- Access to a computer with strong internet connection
- Ability to complete and accept web-based training and supervision