Captioning Procedure

What Library Accessibility Services (LAS) does

• LAS is mandated to provide captioning support for multimedia (e.g., videos and podcasts) from the library's collections, or online content such as YouTube. Currently, LAS does not provide caption support for videos created by instructors or their department.
• There is no accessibility exemption in the Copyright Act for creating captions or transcriptions for videos. To caption multimedia content, we must obtain permission from the copyright holder. When this can’t be done, LAS will create a transcript which is then privately shared with the student who made the request.

Captioning support process

1. Students request captioning/transcription support through the SAS Student Portal.
2. LAS staff receive these requests and contact course instructors to notify them of the request at the start of the semester and outline the procedures for submitting videos to be captioned.
   • Please note that LAS requires a minimum of 7 business days to process all caption requests.
3. If LAS receives copyright permission from the video rights holder to caption their content, a professional caption file will be added to the video. If the video is shown in class, professors will need to click the Closed Caption (CC) button to show the captions.
4. If we are unable to obtain permission to caption content, we will create a transcript that will be privately shared with the student who made the request.

Frequently asked questions

How much time does LAS need to fulfill a captioning request?

LAS requires a minimum of 7 business days to process all caption requests. LAS cannot guarantee that captioning requests with less than 7 days notice will be fulfilled on time. However, if captions are unavailable, LAS will do its best to provide a transcript in its place.

Can LAS share transcripts with instructors to be posted publicly on CourseLink or elsewhere?

Without permission from the copyright holder, transcripts cannot be publicly shared. They can only be shared with the student who made the accessibility request.

Why can’t LAS just caption my videos? The student in my class has a serious hearing impairment.

There is currently no accessibility exemption in the Copyright Act for creating captions or transcriptions for videos. To caption multimedia, LAS must obtain permission from the copyright holder.

Why doesn’t LAS provide captioning for lecture capture content?

Student Accessibility Services (SAS) has deemed AI-generated captions, such as Microsoft Stream auto-captions, sufficient for lecture caption support for SAS-registered students and there are free tools that instructors can use to create them. For more information about AI-generated captions for lecture content, please contact sasassist@uoguelph.ca.

Can I get my course videos made accessible without waiting for a student request?

LAS supports students who have made accessibility requests through their SAS advisor. We do not currently make course content accessible without a student request. 

Does my department have to pay for this support?

Any costs associated with captioning materials are paid for by LAS.

When I’m selecting videos to show in my class, what kind of choices can I make to ensure that this material is accessible, or that it can be captioned more quickly?

To ensure class materials are accessible or more easily captioned, you can choose:

• content from the library’s streaming video collection,
• content that already has professional captions - these can be turned on or off using the Closed Captions (CC) button, or
• multimedia from reputable sources who own the content that they’re sharing.

A YouTube video I want to use has auto-captions – are they good enough?

LAS cannot confirm that auto-captions are accurate without first reviewing them. If a student requests captioning support, instructors will be asked to submit all the third-party videos in their course and the captions will be assessed at that time.

The students aren’t being marked on the video content – do I have to make my videos accessible?

To provide an equitable learning experience for all students, any content being shared in the course needs to be accessible to all, even when students aren’t being evaluated on it.

Please contact las@uoguelph.ca for more information.

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