Who is Captioning Services?
We are an auxiliary of Disability Services. We create and add captions or transcripts to video and audio files to ensure that your content is ADA compliant according to law.
Why am I seeing them in my Canvas course?
Hosted Heads Up:
To expedite the captioning process, the videos should be hosted in an accessible venue.
Videos can not/should not be hosted in Canvas itself. Original video content is recommended to be hosted in Panopto.
Videos can also be hosted in ISU YouTube Studio accounts, GDrives, and for HIPAA-only content within Box. Check our our supported venue information.
If you have course content in other venues- other than 3rd party supplemental content- you are required to have captioned versions.
If they are not captioned, according to Title II, you are not to use them. This includes any publisher content, or non-supported system that hosts videos.
This includes Canvas integrated systems. e.g. TopHat, Perusall, etc.
As a department/instructor should know, for us to provide our services, we need to have administrative access to process content to ensure your content is in ADA compliance.
We can understand that this is a surprise to you. If you see them please make sure that you do not include them into your assignment groups with your students.
These are captioners. They have been populated into your course because you have at least one student that has requested captions for one of their ADA accommodations. The captioners have administrative rights to access your course. You see them enrolled transparently, in the People tool, so you are aware of who they are. The accounts they have are only for their access to do their work. They cannot interact with you or your students. If you need to contact one of us, please email us at captioning@isu.edu.
When we have been notified from our Disability Services office regarding captioning accommodations, we get right on it. You should have received an email from Disability Services and from Captioning Services (us). We send our notification the week we receive the request.
Our dedicated staff are populated into your course; working behind the scenes to find, locate, and identify what audio/video artifacts which are linked within your course. Once listed in our spreadsheets, we assess the artifacts to determine what is needed to ensure content compliance. If your artifact requires captions or a transcript we create that item.
What is the difference between staff listed under Captioning Services and Disability Services?
Depending on the accommodation request, you will see either, or both. Staff enrolled in your course. If they have Captioning Services to identify them, that is us and we are doing captions. If you see Disability Services, those individuals could be support staff for the visually-impaired, or staff supporting other accommodation needs for our student.
Hey, these guys were in my course last semester, why are they back? I thought this was a one time fix.
This happens every semester. If you saw us last semester, you can see us again in your course for this semester. Typically you will only see one in your course. In some special circumstances you may see more than one. A group of captioners seen is a sign that we are processing content as a group.