Digital Learning

Closed Captioning

Introduction to Video Compliance

  • What is ADA Compliance?
    ADA is Americans with Disabilities Act, which was originally established in 1991 to prohibit the discrimination against individuals with disabilities in all areas of public life, including education. Per ADA regulations and a desire to make sure learning is accessible to all, electronic content should have accommodations in place to ensure everyone is able to enjoy it.
  • Who Benefits from ADA Compliance?

    In short: everyone! While accommodations may be requested by students registered with Disability Support Services (also called DSS), such accommodations can benefit all students, especially video compliance.

  • How do I make sure my videos are compliant?

    Video compliance encompasses these major components: 

    • Captions and transcripts which Digital Learning is happy to help provide for your recorded videos
    • Audio descriptions which can be done by the video creator by describing what is on your screen (charts, graphs, images, etc.) and providing PDF or text versions of your visual aids, such as slides.
    • Keyboard accessible video player which is already available with VidGrid.
  • What is the difference between captions and transcripts?

    Captions appear on screen in sync with the video and are a transcription of the dialogue, sound effects, relevant musical cues, and other relevant audio information. These are beneficial for the deaf, hard of hearing, and second language learners.

    Transcripts are text that is separate from the video, but include a transcription of the dialogue, sound effects, relevant musical cues, and other relevant audio information. These are beneficial for those who utilize screen readers.

How can Digital Learning Help?

Digital Learning will only provide captioning and transcription services for videos made by faculty and staff. Faculty are responsible for editing their videos and posting their videos to their Blackboard course(s) unless under contract with Digital Learning for course development. Staff are responsible for editing their videos and posting them to their website(s).

Captioning and transcription can be provided for videos that are in VidGrid hosting platform only. Videos on YouTube, Vimeo, Zoom or other platforms cannot not be captioned at this time, so it is recommended that captioned versions of YouTube and Vimeo videos are found and Zoom videos are put into the VidGrid for captioning.


Due to lack of multilingual staff, captioning can only be provided to English language classes at this time. If you are teaching classes in a language other than English, please contact Contact Us with information about your course to find a solution.

Caption Request Process

  1. Fill out the Caption Request Form for your video or videos.

  2. Captioning will be done on a first come, first serve basis and will be handled in the order they are received by Digital Learning.

    Please note: Priority will only be given to courses with required DSS student accommodations relating to captioning and transcription. In the case of multiple DSS class requests, they will also be treated on a first come, first serve basis.
  3. Captioning services are limited to the availability of staff; turnaround times will vary based on this availability and cannot be guaranteed.

    Please note: Longer videos will take longer to caption; the turnaround for a 2-minute video will be much quicker than a 15-minute video. Videos with poor audio quality will also take longer to caption.
  4. Requesters will be notified via email when their video(s) has been captioned and transcribed. Captions will be immediately available via the VidGrid player and transcripts will be emailed or shared via Google Drive.
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