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Streamlining Captioning Services: Lessons Learned From the Pandemic

Handouts

Presented at 2:00pm in Plaza Court 1 on Thursday, November 18, 2021.

#33910

Speaker(s)

  • Michael Mace, Manager, Indiana University
  • Tomas Gregg, Accessibility Analyst, Indiana University

Session Details

  • Length of Session: 1-hr
  • Format: Lecture
  • Expertise Level: Beginner
  • Type of session: General Conference

Summary

The shift to online learning in Spring 2020 brought with it an increase demand for captioning. Join us as we share our experience scaling the caption services to meet the growing needs of students. We will discuss the process for evaluating vendors, tips for automating your caption workflow, and effective ways to communicate these changes.

Abstract

The Assistive Technology and Accessibility Center (ATAC) at Indiana University partners with our campus’ Disability Service Offices (DSOs) to provide technology solutions related to student accommodation requests. The shift to online learning in Spring 2020 necessitated an overhaul of our existing post-production and live captioning (CART) processes. Very quickly we had to evaluate multiple vendors and implement a process that would take less administrative time. Through this process we learned many valuable lessons that would benefit any other institution looking to streamline their caption process while scaling the service. We will discuss our methodology for evaluating and onboarding caption vendors in detail, the ways our team leveraged features in our Kaltura Reach 2.0 instance, and the communication and training we put into place to support faculty and staff through this transition.

Keypoints

  1. Successful vendor onboarding requires clear customer expectations and vendor willingness to make enhancements
  2. Kaltura Reach can be used to create a semi-automated caption experience for both admin users and students
  3. Training for staff and instructors is instrumental to the successful rollout of a live captioning solution

Disability Areas

Deaf/Hard of Hearing

Topic Areas

Captioning/Transcription, Uncategorized

Speaker Bio(s)

Michael Mace

Michael focuses on leading the ATAC’s staff and temporary employees, making sure the ATAC’s service offerings exceed the expectations of faculty, students, and support staff. Michael also frequently presents on topics such as Universal Design for Learning and Creating Accessible Course Materials. Michael holds a bachelor’s degree in Management Information Systems from Marian University and a master’s degree in Learning Design and Technology from Purdue University.

Tomas Gregg

Tomas Gregg is an Accessibility Analyst with the UITS Assistive Technology and Accessibility Center (ATAC) at Indiana University. Tomas has a Bachelor’s in General Studies, holds a CPACC certification and over 20 years experience in the assistive technology (AT) field covering the areas of purchasing, testing, user training/support, deployment of AT across the university and anywhere else help was needed in the department. In the past this included overseeing the captioning, transcription and audio description services at the ATAC.

Handout(s)