Trout Library Blog - Library Guides at Charles H. Trout Library

If videos are one of the ways you create instructional material there are a few ways to make them more accessible.

Captioning - A 2017 study from Oregon State University Ecampus Research Unit found that 90% of students surveyed used and found captions helpful. Captions are the text that appears on the screen in sync with the speaker or dialogue in a video. It is possible to add captions to your videos yourself with little effort.

YouTube (https://studio.youtube.com/): If you upload your videos to YouTube, there is an option to add subtitles to a video. If you add subtitles in English to your video they can serve the same function as captions. To do this, log in to your YouTube Studio account, Select the video to which you would like to add captions From the left menu, select "Subtitles". Click "Add language" and select your language. Click "Confirm". It may take some time for the subtitles to be generated. In the experience of library staff, if the video is dialog heavy, it can take a couple of hours to generate the subtitles. We recommend initiating the process and plan to come back to it a few hours later. Once they are ready it is a good idea to go in and check them for accuracy. To edit the subtitles, once again, select "Subtitles" from the left menu of the edit screen. You can then read the subtitles and edit the text.
Kapwing (https://www.kapwing.com): If you don't want to use Youtube there are other browser-based options. I'm suggesting only browser-based options because they do not require downloading and installing software. Kapwing is a browser-based video editing and captioning software. The free version allows you to upload, edit and caption short videos of a maximum file size of 250MB. The drawback to Kapwing is that to export the finished video with captions it must be under 7 minutes.
Amara (https://amara.org/): Amara is a nonprofit that aims to make video more accessible to everyone. They have a free captioning platform that allows you to upload and generate captions for your videos. The caveat to using the free public editor is that the video and subtitles are public and open for collaboration. Do not use Amara if you want to retain the rights to your video.
Subtitle Horse (https://subtitle-horse.com/): Subtitle Horse has a sophisticated video editor that is browser-based. You don't need to download software to use it. The free version allows you to create captions and subtitles for free without registration. It also has the option to download the text of the captions in a number of formats. This is useful if you need your text file in file formats other than plain text.

Captioning videos on your phone is also possible via various apps. I have two good options to share. Both of the options are free. Both add live captions to video as you are recording.

Clips (https://www.apple.com/clips/) - iOS
AutoCap (http://autocap.app/) - iOS and Android

Transcript - As well as having captions, a transcript of a video is also very helpful for students. You don't necessarily need to type out a transcript yourself. If you used a captioning software, such as those mentioned above, you can download or copy/paste the text of the captions into a word editor and provide the text along with the video. If posting the video to YouTube, consider copying the captions and pasting them in the Details section under the video.