How to Produce Captioning and Descriptive Video?

For information regarding having Captioning and Descriptive Video produced for your course content, please contact Student Accessibility Services at student_accessibility@umanitoba.ca or 204-474-6213.

SAS has created a detailed how-to manual to add proper closed-captioning to a YouTube video (PDF).

What is Captioning?

Audio and video content may not be accessible to someone who is Deaf or Hard of Hearing. Captioning provides text of everything that is heard (and sometimes additional or descriptive information). As digital audio and video becomes more common in the classroom, whether a podcast, MP3, Youtube video, iTunes, Quicktime, or other media formats, it is important to ensure that all course content is equally available to every student.
Having captioning available benefits many students, not just those who are Deaf or Hard of Hearing; students who have English as an additional language often benefit from having captioning available. Also there are many different learning styles; having captioning available for a student who is not an auditory learner can make a huge difference in understanding and comprehending the content.

For some great examples of Captioning, feel free to view these videos.

What is Descriptive Video (DV)?

Descriptive Video is the process of having an additional narration track included to visual media (Television show, movie, Youtube video, etc.); everything that is seen on screen is described for someone who is blind or visually impaired. DV, also known as Audio, Video, or Visual Description provides varied use of simile, metaphor, and synonyms which can help improve vocabulary of those listening but will often provide a far more interesting image in your imagination than is available on screen.

For some great examples of DV, feel free to view these videos.