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Providing captions benefits all students but is critical for some. Learn how to provide professional captions for students registered with the Accessibility Service with access requirements during on-campus classes.
Why use professional captions
Professional captions are provided by a third-party service where a human provides the captions to deliver higher levels of accuracy than automated captions. This is critical for students who have captioning as an access requirement.
On-campus captioning services
The Accessibility Service uses two services for captioning, one where the captioner will be onsite and the other where the captioner will be remote. This is due to student preferences and scheduling constraints.
You will receive a notification from the Accessibility Service when you have a student in your subject that requires professional captioning for live classes and what type of services they are receiving.
Onsite captioning
All you need to do is let the Accessibility Service know if there are any changes to the location or time of your class. The captioner will be in the room and will send the link to the captions directly to the student.
Remote captioning
For remote captioning, the captioner will be required to attend the class via Zoom. There is some additional setup required which is detailed below.
Professional captioning is an expensive external service essential for students to access and participate in their classes.
Any class time or location changes must be communicated to the Accessibility Service as soon as possible (within 72 business hours of the class time and date) to ensure the supplier has the correct details to deliver services and that charges are not incurred where services are not required.
Before class
For remote captioning
You will need to send the Accessibility Service a Zoom link for the captioners to be able to attend the session. To ensure the session runs smoothly, when creating the Zoom link please ensure:
- The person running the session is the person who creates the Zoom meeting. This mitigates the risk of login issues as they will be the host of the meeting.
- If the session is being run as a mixed-mode class, use the same Zoom meeting to make sure there is only one Zoom meeting, e.g., the captioner should use the same link as the online participants.
Start of class
In the classroom:
- Start the AV session via the touch panel and select PC as the source.
- Login to the lectern PC, open the Zoom application and sign in to your UTS Zoom account via SSO.
- Start the appropriate Zoom meeting, click ‘Join with Audio’.
- Send audio from the room mics over Zoom by clicking the arrow next to the microphone icon in the operations bar in Zoom and selecting “USB Capture HDMI”. This will send audio from the lectern, lapel and handheld microphones into the Zoom application.
- Remove the lapel belt pack mic from the charging dock on the lectern, it will take ten seconds to start up. Make sure its volume is turned up on the AV touch panel via the microphone settings page.
- If you can be heard amplified in the classroom you should now be heard clearly on Zoom.
When an on-campus class requires professional captioning where the captioner is attending remotely via Zoom, the Accessibility Service has booked AV Support to attend the first session to ensure this is set up correctly.
If you have any issues setting up the Zoom meeting, please call AV support on (02) 9514 1978.
During class
Remember that all the audio that the student requires needs to go through the microphone in the room.
When you are talking
Always use the microphone. This is important to be conscious of this so that the student can receive their captions to access the class.
When students ask questions
Repeat questions/comments before responding: This helps to ensure all speech goes through microphones, or –
Use a second roving microphone: if it is available in the room to ensure good quality audio.
When doing breakout activities
Ensure there is a handheld microphone in the section with the student who requires captions.
Don’t inadvertently disclose information about the captioner and don’t identify the student who they are captioning for – even if there are breakout activities. Students have a right to privacy.