Most institutions of higher education—both public and private—are required by law to provide closed captions to students who are deaf or hard of hearing.
While the need for accessibility is universal, most colleges and universities approach closed captioning in very different ways. Some choose to caption video content based on need or request; others choose to caption all video content, predicting more strict requirements down the road. Some colleges and universities have found captions beneficial to all students and have expanded their captioning efforts to include interactive video tools and SEO initiatives.
Based on survey data from a 2016 joint study between 3Play Media and Oregon State University (OSU), Student Uses and Perceptions of Closed Captions and Transcripts, the two biggest challenges around captioning are:
- 1. A lack of understanding of legal requirements for captioning.
- 2. A lack of centralization for captioning on campus (i.e. if a captioning policy exists on campus, there is little awareness or enforcement, so un-captioned videos can slip through the cracks).
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More Info
3playmedia.com
oregonstate.edu
