Captions can be provided through Zoom's live transcription feature, manual captioning by the Zoom host or meeting attendee assigned by the host, or an integrated third-party closed captioning service.

The live transcription and closed captioning features have been enabled for all GVSU Zoom users.

Documentation:

Zoom information on Live Transcription and Closed Captioning.

Live Transcription

Host: 

• In a meeting or webinar that you are hosting, click the Live Transcript icon on the toolbar. 
• Select Enable Auto-Transcription. 
• The system will start providing live transcription. 

Participants: 

• Participants will be notified when the host has started live transcription. To see the live transcript: 
  • Participants can click the Live Transcript icon on the toolbar. 
  • Select Show Subtitle. 
• The provided subtitles can be clicked and dragged to move their position in the meeting window.
• To adjust the caption size:
  • Click the up ^ next to Start Video / Stop Video.
  • Click Video Settings then Accessibility.
  • Move the slider to adjust the caption size.

Limitations

Live transcription has limitations to take note of. Live transcription currently only supports English and the accuracy of the feature depends on many variables, such as but not limited to:

• Background noise
• Volume and clarity of the speaker’s voice
• Speaker's proficiency with the English language
• Lexicons and dialects specific to a geography or community

Because of these limitations, if you are required to use speech-to-text support for any compliance or accessibility needs in your meetings and webinars, we do recommend using a manual captioner or service that may be able to guarantee a specific accuracy.

Closed Captioning

Host

• In a meeting or webinar that you are hosting, click the Live Transcript icon on the toolbar. 
• Choose one of these options: 
  • Assign a participant to type: Opens the participants window. Hover over the participant's name and click More then Assign to Type Closed Caption.
  • I will type: Opens the closed captioning window for you to manually type closed captions.
  • Copy the API token: Copy the URL that you can provide to a third-party closed captioning service to integrate the service with your meeting.

Participants: 

• Participants will be notified when the host has started closed captioning. To see the closed captioning: 
  • Participants can click the Closed Caption icon on the toolbar. 
  • Select Show Subtitle. 
• The provided subtitles can be clicked and dragged to move their position in the meeting window.
• To adjust the caption size:
  • Click the up ^ next to Start Video / Stop Video.
  • Click Video Settings then Accessibility.
  • Move the slider to adjust the caption size.

Third-Party Closed Captioning Service

• If you have a hearing impaired student in a class that has been approved by Disability Support Resources (DSR) to use a captioner, DSR will make all the arrangements for captioning.
• If you want a service to provide captioning for reasons other than a hearing impaired student, you will need to make the arrangements yourself. Your department is responsible for the cost. GVSU has service providers we work with for captioning online classes. Please contact one of the service providers below to set up the service:
  • Q&A Captions (local)
    • Contact: Annette Blough ([email protected])
  • ACS Captions (acscaptions.com)
    • Contact: Rachel Kociper ([email protected])