While captioning and transcription were originally designed for individuals who are deaf or hard of hearing, many people benefit from seeing the spoken word represented as text, including those who are:
- listening to someone speaking in a language that is not their native language
- situations where the sound quality is not good or there is a lot of background noise
- those who benefit from seeing as well as hearing
- those who may benefit from having a lasting transcript.
Automatic Transcription and Captioning
Transcription is the process of converting the spoken word to text. Transcription can be done by computer-based speech recognition technology, usually referred to as automatic transcription. Similarly, when captions for a video are computer generated, they are referred to as automatic captions. Because automatic transcription and captioning use speech recognition technology to produce a transcript, accuracy can vary significantly depending on several factors including sound quality, background noise, technical terms used and the speaker’s accent.
Live Transcription
Alternatively, live transcription can be done by a professionally trained transcriber, often referred to as CART. If a participant requests CART services as an accommodation for a live event, automatic transcription should not be substituted since the accuracy cannot be guaranteed. If you are producing videos, it is important to check the captions for accuracy and edit as needed or have the video professionally captioned.