Last week we talked about editing videos in YouTube; this week, I want to talk briefly about captioning those videos you create.
Did you know you should always add captions to your videos? Doing so is essential for complying with state and federal accessibility laws (to enable the deaf and hard-of-hearing to understand video content).
But adding captions offers other benefits as well:
- Increased comprehension of the material presented, especially for non-native speakers.
- Searching and indexing capabilities – think of the student who wants to review a video of a professor’s talk. Instead of having to listen through the entire presentation, that student could search for the desired term, and then jump straight to the appropriate timecode.
For more information on captioning, and its importance for Stanford University, visit Stanford Captioning.
For information on accessibility issues in general, visit the Stanford Online Accessibility Program.
One of the services on the Stanford Captioning web site is the Stanford Captioning System, an online tool you can use to have transcripts created for you (for a fee).
To add captions in YouTube:
- If you’re not already signed in, in your web browser, go to http://www.youtube.com/ and click Sign In.
- Go to http://www.youtube.com/my_videos
- Click Edit next to the desired video.
- Click Captions and Subtitles.
- If do not have an existing transcript, and you wish to use the YouTube Machine Transcription service, click Request Processing.
If you do have an existing transcript (e.g., from the Stanford Captioning System), click Add New Captions or Transcript.
- Then, click Choose File, and locate and select the transcript.
To learn more about creating and editing video using YouTube, come take:
YouTube has become the second-most used search engine to find content on the Web.
In class, we will use YouTube’s new built-in editor, but the processes and concepts learned are transferable to all editing software programs.
In this hands-on, half-day class, you’ll learn:
- the basics of creating a simple promotional video
- how to shoot a short video clip
- how to edit your video
- how to upload to YouTube
- how to create captions to comply with accessibility regulations
- and how to publish your video on your web site.