Live Sessions & Live Captioning

Live sessions include synchronous online and in-person lectures, as well as webinars and other events. Due to their real-time nature, it's not always possible to provide perfectly correct captions, but it is recommended to provide live captions, or captions that are created in real time, either by AI or a human. Human live-captioning is typically reserved for large events.

Main Considerations

Live captions should be provided for real-time sessions. Sign language interpreters may be included at the request of the people seeking the accommodation.
If you're lecturing in a classroom (or other presentation space), you can use the classroom's lectern computer, screen, and projector and the methods below to provide in-class captions.
Avoid including video that flashes more than three times per second. If it must be included, warn watchers ahead of time.
Narrate important visual content (ex: if you are demonstrating a chemical reaction, verbally explain what is happening)
Slideshows should leave a fifth or more of the bottom of the slide clear so that slide content and captions can exist side-by-side comfortably.

Workflows

While auto-generated captions aren't considered fully accessible in recorded videos, they are a good option for live sessions where interpreters aren't present. Additionally, if you're recording a live session in Zoom, you can edit the captions later.

Zoom

Automatically enable live captions for all of the Zoom sessions you host:

1. Click on your profile icon and select Settings from the menu.
2. Click on Accessibility from the left-hand menu of the window that pops up.
3. Scroll to Closed captioning
4. Turn on "Always show captions in meetings and webinars."

Enable live captions for an individual session:

1. Start the meeting.
2. Click More > Captions, the Show Captions button should appear next to the More button.
3. Click the Show Captions button.

Google Meets (see Google Meets' captioning guide hereLinks to an external site.)

1. Start the meeting.
2. Click the three stacked dots on the bottom right, next to the End Meeting button.
3. Select Settings from the menu.
4. Navigate to the Captions tab and switch from "No captions" to "Live captions."
5. Exit the menu.