Employee Captioning Requirements
Requirements
- Following the Accessibility for Ontarians with Disabilities Act (AODA), having captioned lectures or videos makes them more universally accessible for students, and will help to level the playing ground for those who may identify deaf/Deaf, hard-of hearing, have cognitive / learning disabilities, who do not speak English as a first language, and/or who may have poor internet/audio access at home.
- Recorded material (like a lecture video, a recorded talk, or a video with audio) distributed as part of a course must be captioned.
- This applies to courses offered in-person, as well as online.
Accommodations Processes for Captioning Recorded Material
- The hosting/streaming services that the University is providing and supporting for playback (Echo 360, MacVideo, Microsoft Stream) automatically caption video/audio that is uploaded to these platforms, regardless of how the content was created.
- Accuracy of these automated captions is variable, but is roughly 90-95% accurate.
- Instructors are currently only required to have captions that are generated automatically by these systems, even if they are not 100% accurate. Anything beyond that is up to the discretion of the instructor given the time and resources available.
- Echo360 is the recommended software for lecture capture, as it provides the most seamless integration with Avenue, and also allows for the coordination of services across the different campus offices involved in the process.
- For example, if a student in a course is registered with Student Accessibility Services (SAS) who requires captioning, SAS will coordinate with Library Accessibility Services (LAS) and Campus Classroom Technologies (CCT) to ensure AODA requirements are met. SAS will contact individual instructors if this process is initiated for a student who requires 100% accurate captions, and will put the instructor in touch with Echo360 support personnel at CCT.
- A department might consider adding additional student support for manually revising automated captions/transcripts on video if resources become available.
Support
- Please consult the Remote Teaching and Captioning Guide for an overview of McMaster-supported platforms as per their captioning capabilities.
- For any and all other questions related to requirements for captioning (including clarifications around the use of live captioning) please connect with Kate Brown, AccessMac Program Manager, Equity and Inclusion Office at access@mcmaster.ca.
Platforms with Accessibility Features for Online Meetings
WHAT IS MICROSOFT TEAMS?
Microsoft Teams is a unified communication and collaborative hub (and part of the Office365 suite of programs – free for McMaster staff and students)
Accessibility for microsoft teams
- Microsoft Teams Installation and Use Tutorial (with accessibility pieces featured)
- Teaching with Teams – a video tutorial developed by the MacPherson Institute with accessibility and inclusion features highlighted and which may be useful to staff educator
- To learn how to teach accessibly, please see the Teaching in Microsoft Teams webinar in our Microsoft 365 Accessible Documents series
- Also please see the Remote Teaching and Captioning Guide for support with captioning in Teams.
- To learn how to use the new live transcription feature and download transcripts in Teams please visit the Office 365 Hub from University Technology Services (UTS)
get support from the macpherson institute
- For more information and resources related to Microsoft Teams, visit MacPherson’s Teaching Remotely page
ZOOM LICENSING
All eligible McMaster faculty, staff and active students now have access to licensed Zoom accounts. Please note that:
- In some cases, users may need to request a Zoom license. Generic, Departmental and Role-Based accounts are not eligible for a Zoom license.
- We are still recommending students go with MS Teams for web and video conferencing needs.
See the IT Continuity site for more information.
Accessibility for Zoom
- Zoom Installation and Use Tutorial
- Zoom Accessibility Features
- To learn how to enable live captions in Zoom visit University Technology Services (UTS) Page for a step-by-step guide
Get Support from uts and the macpherson institute
- Request a Zoom Account (note that there is a high volume of UTS support requests at this time)
- For more information and resources related to Zoom, visit MacPherson’s Teaching Remotely page
what is webex?
WebEx is a McMaster supported tool used for meetings, web and video conferencing.
Accessibility for WebEx
- Cisco Webex Installation and Use Tutorial (with accessibility pieces)
- Also please see the Remote Teaching and Captioning Guide for support with recording and editing transcripts using WebEx
Get Support from avenue, webex, and the macpherson institute
- Support available by request at Avenue Support
- 24/7 support from WebEx at 1-866-229-3239
- For more information and resources related to WebEx, visit MacPherson’s Teaching Remotely page
Creating Accessible Communications for Distribution and Websites
The Faculty of Sciences and the AccessMac Program (Equity and Inclusion Office) have collaborated to create an extensive and simplified webinar series that will guide learners through the various accessibility features and formatting techniques for Microsoft products.
Accessible Digital Content Training:
- What is Digital Accessibility?
- Accessibility in Pressbooks
- Microsoft Word Document Accessibility
- Accessible Microsoft PowerPoint
- Microsoft Outlook Accessibility
- Microsoft Excel Document Accessibility
To access full text outlines for creating accessible documents and presentations, please access Social Sciences-developed training on:
Remote Meetings and Closed Captioning
Captioning video content supports accessibility for participants who may be deaf/Deaf, hard-of hearing, have cognitive / learning disabilities, who do not speak English as a first language, and/or who may have poor internet / audio access at home.
There are differences, however, between and among McMaster e-learning and meeting platforms in terms of captioning features that can be accessed in order to:
- Caption in real-time
- E.g. features in Microsoft Teams and Microsoft PowerPoint that allow for real-time captioning during a virtual lecture or synchronous meeting;
- Caption through auto-generation after a video has been recorded
- E.g. Once you’ve completed a meeting recording using Echo360 Lecture Capture Software or Kaltura (MacVideo) Capture Software
- E.g. after the material has been recorded and/or uploaded to video and podcasting platforms such as Microsoft Stream and MacVideo
Remote Meetings and Captioning
The following resource on Remote Teaching and Captioning has been developed by the Faculty of Sciences to helpfully guides users through captioning capabilities for institutionally-supported teaching, learning and meeting platforms at McMaster.
This guide is particularly helpful for proactive accessibility measures applied to online learning environments and virtual classrooms, and is not a replacement for workplace accommodations for video / audio captioning and transcripts.
Peer Support for Employees with Disabilities
The Employee Accessibility Network is an online and in-person network of employees (faculty and staff) with disabilities at McMaster University. The Network supports peer networking and professional development for members, and acts additionally as an accessibility consultation group to the McMaster Accessibility Council. Please visit the Employee Accessibility Network page to learn more and join.