Base Guidelines to Captioning #
As discussed earlier, captioning is the process of converting audio content into a text format that is displayed on the screen of a video while it is playing. Captions need to be:
- Synchronized – Meaning the text appears at approximately the same time as the audio content it corresponds to.
- Equivalent and Equal – This means that captions need to be equal to the audio content and go above and beyond by including speaker identification and sound effects.
- Accessible and Readily Available – As long as the captions are within an accessible player such as YouTube, this requirement is met.
These are the bare minimum required for captions. However there is the Described and Captioned Media Program’s Captioning Key. This captioning key focuses on providing important practices in ensuring your captions are as user friendly, and effective as possible.
The Captioning Key #
The Described and Captioned Media Program (DCMP) created a captioning key, which is a set of recommendations for best practices when creating captions. We won’t go over the complete guide, but the following are the essential elements:
Elements of Captioning #
According to DCMP, the elements of effective captioning are:
- Accurate – Captions need to represent the content with no errors.
- Consistent – Captions need to be uniform in their style and presentation.
- Clear – Captions need to completely represent the audio in text format, which includes speaker identification, and non-speech information.
- Readable – Captions need to be displayed long enough to be read completely, synchronize with the audio, and not obscure visual content.
- Equal – Captions need to preserve the meaning and intention of the material.
The specifics on some of these elements will be described in the following sections:
Caption Duration, Placement, and Rate #
Captions should be long enough to have it where someone can read the content, while also balancing the need to be synchronized with the text. This can be a delicate process. The DCMP recommends that:
- Captions should have a minimum duration of 40 frames (1.33 seconds)
- Captions should have a maximum duration of 6 seconds. (Background music notation is an exception).
In addition, captions should not obscure visual content, and should only be a maximum of two lines long.
Line Division #
As stated previously, captions should only be a maximum of two lines long. In addition captions should only be broken at a logical point where speech normally pauses. Here are some guidelines:
- Do not break a modifier from the word it modifies.
- Do not break a prepositional phrase.
- Do not break a person’s name nor a title from the name with which it is associated.
- Do not break a line after a conjunction.
- Do not break an auxiliary verb from the word it modifies.
- Never end a sentence and begin a new sentence on the same line unless they are short, related sentences containing one or two words.
You can check out the Captioning Key section on Text for more examples and information.
Language Mechanics #
In general, captions should always:
- Follow proper rules of spelling, capitalization, punctuation, and grammar.
- Use the Oxford comma for lists.
- Caption spelling of words in all caps with hyphens between each letter. (Example: Maria becomes M-A-R-I-A).
- Use quotation marks to denote any readings from a poem, book, play, journal, letter, or voiceover.
You can check out more advice on language mechanics by checking out the Captioning Key page on Language Mechanics.
Sound Effects and Music #
In general you should indicate essential sound effects and music by having brackets ([, ]) around the description of the sound.
For example:
[Louis Armstrong plays
“Hello Dolly”]
[lyrical flute solo]
[pianist playing
the national anthem]
If possible be specific with your descriptions, for example instead of stating a bird is singing, you could note that it is a robin singing.
There is more examples and information you can find by going to the Captioning Key section on Sound Effects.
Captioning in YouTube #
While there are other methods to captioning, such as Camtasia Studio, YouTube is by far the easiest. If you need help with captioning, please be sure to contact eLearning for assistance. We even have a third-party provider that can help.
For now, let’s discuss how to caption in YouTube:
Adding Captions #
After uploading your video to YouTube, you can add new captions to it easily. One technique you can utilize is by taking advantage of YouTube’s automatic caption service. YouTube’s automatic captions are automatically added to any videos that are uploaded to YouTube. Note: It may take a few hours for the automatic captions to appear.
While these automatic captions are not 100% accurate, they can serve as a great starting point that will help you save time as you edit them.
YouTube has provided a great captioning tutorial,that covers how to add new captions by adding or editing an existing track, uploading a transcript or transcribing manually.
In addition you can check out Portland Community College’s guide to audio and video accessibility.
Video Tutorial #
The following video shows how to caption on YouTube:
