Captioning and Accessibility in Kaltura

Ensuring your instructional media is accessible is essential for supporting all learners. Kaltura provides built-in tools for captioning and integrates well with Canvas’s accessibility features. This page outlines how to manage captions and apply best practices for inclusive media.

Why Captioning Matters

Captions benefit:

• Students with hearing impairments
• English language learners
• Students in noisy or quiet environments
• Anyone reviewing content for key concepts

Captions also support Universal Design for Learning (UDL) and help meet ADA compliance standards.

Captioning Standards and Policy

• Accuracy Requirement
  Captions should be at least 99% accurate to meet WCAG 2.1 standards. Review and correct auto-captions to ensure completeness and clarity.

• University Policy
  See the Key Provisions of Captioning & Accessibility Operating Procedure for official guidance.

• Requesting Captioning Services
  If you have 60+ minutes of content,  Submit a Captioning Request to Access & Accommodations Services.
  

  • Content may be processed in-house or sent to a third-party captioning company for processing depending on length, language, volume of requests, etc. To ensure quality content is received on time, AAS requires all captioning requests to be submitted two (2) weeks before the date it will be used.

  • If your content does not meet the criteria above, you are responsible for making sure your content gets captioned.

• If you have any questions, concerns, or issues, please contact:
  
  • Victoria Shann (she/her)
    Assistive Technology & Access Coordinator
    vforster@AState.edu | 870-972-3964
    Reng Student Union, Room 2181

Captioning Workflow in Kaltura

1. Recording/uploading
   Upload your video to Kaltura using any supported method—Media Upload, Express Capture, Kaltura Capture, or YouTube integration.
   
2. Automatic Captions
   

   Videos uploaded to Kaltura are automatically captioned using machine-generated speech recognition.

   Accuracy may vary depending on audio quality and speaker clarity.

3. Editing Captions

   You can edit captions directly in Kaltura to correct spelling errors and timing.

   To correct the captions for the videos you upload to Kaltura, follow the instructions below:

   • Upload and manage captions
   • Create captions manually
   • Edit captions

4. Publishing
   Once captions are reviewed and finalized, publish the video to your course Media Gallery or embed it in Canvas content.
   
5. Student access
   Students can view captioned videos in Canvas with improved accessibility and playback performance.

Best Practices for Accessible Media

• Review and edit auto-captions
  Especially for technical terms, names, or acronyms.

• Use clear audio
  Minimize background noise and speak clearly to improve caption accuracy.

• Add captions before publishing
  Ensure students have access to captions from the start.

• Use scripts when possible
  Helps with clarity and consistency, especially for longer or complex videos.
  Makes correcting issues in the captions as simple as copying and pasting from the script.

All of these best practices—clear audio, scripting, caption review, and timely publishing—are easily supported in the Lightboard Recording Studio. The studio setup minimizes background noise, supports teleprompter scripting, and saves recordings locally. Faculty can then upload the video to Kaltura using the Media Upload option and assign an appropriate title for captioning and sharing.

Related Tools and Resources

• Course Accessibility Support in Canvas
• Lightboard Recording Studio