Why I close-caption my videos

I spend a lot of time making videos for my fully online graduate level courses....a LOT of time.... While I may spend 5 minutes in recording (assuming I only need one take of the video and not several), that five minutes turns into an additional hour for editing the video, more time for adding annotations and special effects to make the video for interactive and engaging...THEN I close caption...every...single...video.... A five-minute video, then, may really take me several hours to make it ready for viewing.

As I was close captioning a video for an upcoming course, it occured to me that not everyone may be familiar with the process or understand why we NEED to close caption.
 

What is close captioning?

Closed captioning displays text on a television, video screen, or other visual display to provide additional  information for the viewer.

Close captioning is NOT the same as subtitling. Basically, subtitles assume an audience can hear the audio, but need the dialogue provided in text form as well. Meanwhile, closed captioning assumes an audience cannot hear the audio and needs a text description of what they would otherwise be hearing. 

Why should we close caption every video?

Erroneously, we often tend to think of close captioning as only for the hearing challenged...a way to make sure we are 508 compliant.

But...this is not the only reason to close caption our videos.

We learn in a variety of ways - by seeing, hearing, and touching....   And close captioning allows learners who hear without any difficulty to have another way to reinforce learning by reading and seeing while they are hearing.  

Another reason for close captioning includes viewing environment. Adults are not always in the privacy of their homes when they are are viewing a video, but may be in a public place.  Close captioning your video allows them to watch your video wherever they may be. They do not need to wait until they reach home and locate their headset. Instead, they can watch a video at their convenience because you have close-captioned it.

What about hose learners who may have an undiagnosed hearing loss? Some of us may not even realize we have a partial loss of hearing...or may not want to admit it. Using close-captioning can help those adults better follow the video.


Although we try to produce a video where we have clearly enunciated each word and without distracting background noises, unless we have a specially designed recording room with expensive microphones and sound proofing, we may well have some audio  issues that may not bother us, but could be problematic for others.  Close-captioning can negate those issues.

This is not only true for educational videos but for training videos or work-related videos. Viewers may be in a cubicle without a headset, there may be a lot of ambient noise that impacts hearing a video, or the employees may not be aware of hearing issues.Close-captioning training just makes sense in a workplace setting.

Personally, I have a difficult time finding a comfortable headset, one that doesn't hurt my ears.... and I have no hearing problems.  I often tend to use close captioning to save my ears when viewing someone else's video.

Transcription 

Providing a transcript can also be beneficial for your viewers, but should not take the place of the close-captioning which appears on the screen at the exact point of content in a slide.  A transcript does provide a great review.


Tools for thought


I use Camtasia to record videos and close caption during the editing process...but youtube also can assist with close captioning... as can most of the video recording software. Check with I.T. at your organization to see what tools they provide.  If they do not provide any tools, then familiarize yourself with what is available.



Think of close captioning as being respectful to our adult learners who learn in a variety of manners and in a variety of locations....NOT as only a matter of 508 compliance.