Instructor Guidance: Post-Production Captioning Accommodations
This guide is intended for instructors who have been notified by Disability Services (DS) about a student(s) in their course(s) with post-production captioning (PPC) accommodations. We also recommend that you review the Disability Services faculty roles and responsibilities page. As the instructor, you are responsible for ensuring any video and audio media used in your course is accurately captioned by the time students are expected to access the media. Please ensure you review the Caption Accuracy and Standards section of this page for more detailed information about accuracy requirements.
The Digital Accessibility Office’s (DAO) captioning team is here to help you through the process. Please follow the steps outlined on this page to fulfill your responsibilities in a smooth, timely, and simple manner.
Step One: Identify media in your course
Review your course materials for the semester to determine if you have any videos or audio. If you do, make a list of the items and the dates by which the students will need to access them. The list should include the following:
- Recordings made during class time (e.g., lectures, exam reviews)
- Media in Canvas
- Media screened during class time
- Media that is embedded in or linked to in course materials (e.g., PowerPoints, readings, and articles)
- Additional and optional resources for students
- Plans for student-created media that will be viewable by the student with the captioning accommodation (e.g., peer review assignments)
Please include any media with existing captions or transcripts. Our team will assess if the existing captions and transcripts are accurate enough to meet the accommodations.
Tip: If you are obtaining media through the library, request a captioned version of the materials, if available.
Step Two: Consider storage options
When possible, we recommend storing media files in Canvas Studio. This will result in the fastest possible captioning turnaround time. Please refer to OIT’s video guides, Upload a New Video to Canvas Studio (video) and Embed a Canvas Studio Video (video), for step-by-step instructions. If you have previously used Kaltura (My Media) for storing and embedding video content in Canvas, please review OIT's Kaltura Retirement - Timeline & Migration Information page for more information about this transition.
To learn more about best practices for storing captioned videos, please refer to the Caption-Friendly Video Storage Options page.
Sharing Zoom Recordings
Zoom's native media player, Zoom Cloud, does not support human-made captions. To meet PPC accommodation requirements, any Zoom recordings you plan to share with students must be stored elsewhere so that our team can add captions. We recommend Canvas Studio.
Please note that live captions during Zoom meetings/lectures are a separate accommodation through the Disability Services office. For more information, review the Multiple Accommodations section below.
Step Three: Submit the Post-Production Captioning Accommodation Request Form
After compiling the information from the previous steps, please submit the Post-Production Captioning Accommodation Request Form within five (5) business days of receiving notification of the accommodations. Once submitted, the Digital Accessibility Office captioning team will respond within two (2) business days to confirm the details of your request and communicate if any further information is needed. If you have any issues accessing the form, or need additional information, please email Captioning@Colorado.EDU. Only one form submission per semester is needed. If you choose to forgo the request form and fulfill your student’s accommodation yourself, then please review the Additional Information section of this page for more details.
Important: Our team can view published and unpublished content in Canvas courses. We typically review your Canvas course content to ensure there is not any audio or video media missing captions or transcripts. Please reach out to us at Captioning@Colorado.EDU if you have any questions or concerns.
Step Four: Communicate with students
Please communicate with all students about your course media, including how to access captions. A good time to do this is on the first day of class as you review your syllabus and course expectations.
Additionally, we recommend communicating directly with your student(s) with accommodations about accommodation implementation in order to adjust items as needed.
Step Five: Notify the captioning team of any additional media throughout the semester
It is your responsibility to inform the captioning team about any additional media you plan to use during the semester with as much advance notice as possible. When possible, please provide the captioning team with at least five (5) business days advance notice to ensure captions can be returned before students access the media.
Additional Information
Caption Accuracy and Standards
Post-production captioning accommodations require a high level of accuracy to ensure an equitable experience for students. Our Captioning Quality Guidelines outline the standards we strive to meet.
Important: Auto-generated captions are not sufficiently accurate to meet student accommodation requests and, where present, must be replaced with human-made or human-edited captions unless a student has indicated otherwise.
Auto-generated captions and transcripts can be used as a starting point before being edited for accuracy and quality. If you decide to create or edit captions yourself, please review our DIY Captioning resource.
Campus Policy
Under campus policy, it is the instructor's responsibility to fulfill students’ post-production captioning accommodations. DS and the DAO captioning team exist as resources to help you meet these responsibilities.
To learn more about campus responsibilities regarding captioning accommodations, please review section 2(b) of the CU Boulder Campus Standards for the Digital Accessibility Policy (PDF).
Displaying Captions
The DAO captioning team works to implement closed captioning. Closed captions allow viewers to turn captions on or off for themselves while watching a video.
Important: When showing videos during class time, please turn on captions since they are essential to students with captioning accommodations and can be beneficial to other students.
Multiple Accommodations
Please note that some students have multiple accommodations, which can include any combination of post-production captioning, real-time captioning, and/or American Sign Language (ASL) interpreting. Different accommodation types are not interchangeable and all accommodations must be met.
The DAO captioning team can only fulfill post-production captioning requests, not real-time captioning or ASL interpreting requests. For support with real-time captioning or ASL interpreting accommodation requests, please contact Disability Services at DSCcommAccess@Colorado.EDU.
Editing Media
Make all edits to any media before captioning. If captioned content is edited or replaced with an edited version at a later date, the captions will no longer be accurate. When working with the DAO captioning team, please only provide finalized video and audio content.
Contact Us
The DAO captioning team is always happy to help with any questions or concerns. Please reach out to Captioning@Colorado.EDU any time we can be of assistance.