Elements of Quality Captioning and Best Practice When Captioning

Owned by Karen Skudlarek
Last updated: Feb 14, 2022 by Sarah Nguyen (Deactivated)
2 min read

Students, faculty, and staff can edit captions for videos on Kaltura, YouTube, and other video streaming platforms. The most current captioning information is available on the Described and Captioned Media Program's Guidelines and Best Practices for Captioning page. 

For more information about captioning content, such as Chemistry terminology, contact the DCMP directly for guidance.  

Elements of Quality Captioning

  • Accuracy
    The goal for each production is errorless captions. 

  • Consistency
    Uniformity in style and presentation of all captioning features is crucial for viewer understanding.

  • Clarity
    A complete textual representation of the audio, including speaker identification and non-speech information, provides clarity.

  • Readability 

    • Captions should: 

      • Be displayed with enough time to be read completely. 

      • Be synchronized with the audio.  

    • Captions should not: 

      • Obscure the visual content.   

      • Be obscured by the visual content. 

  • Equality
    Equal access captioning requires that the meaning and intention of the material is completely preserved.

Best Practice When Captioning

  • Use a maximum of two lines of text for captions

  • Indicate speakers. You can use their name if it is known. You can also identify speakers by narrator or by gender and number, as shown below. 

    • [Jack]

    • [female #1]

    • [male narrator]

  • Indicate sound effects. Examples include:

    • [audience cheering]

    • [explosion]

  • Indicate changes in intonation Examples include:

    • (whispering)

    • (angrily speaking)

  • Indicate music. Examples include: 

    • [lyrical flute solo]

    • [Louis Armstrong plays "Hello Dolly"]

  • When people are seen talking, but there is no audio, caption as shown in the examples below:

    • [no audio]

    • [silence]

  • When content is inaudible, such as when a speaker is too quiet, caption as [inaudible].

Professional Captioning Services

3 Play Media

If you need professional caption services, UConn has a contract in place with 3Play Media. To create an account,

  1. Review the instructions on the 3 Play Media Captioning and Transcription page.

  2. Contact the Academic IT department at techsupport@uconn.edu to link your account to Kaltura.

IT Accessibility 

ITS also offers a captioning service for $15/hour of labor through the IT Accessibility department. You can request this service at itaccessibility@uconn.edu.

A 10 minute video will take about 50 minutes to caption.

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