It's extremely important to caption the videos you share. Right now in Minnesota, it is estimated that just over 1 million people have some degree of hearing loss. Further, a study by John’s Hopkins Medicine found that nearly a fifth of all Americans 12 years or older have hearing loss. That’s 20%!!! With these numbers, there’s a good chance that someone you share a video with is deaf, deafblind, or hard of hearing and could benefit from captions.

There are many different options for captioning videos depending on the type and length of the video one wishes to caption. MNCDHH has a wonderful web-based training course hosted on MNIT’s Office of Accessibility website, Video Captioning Essentials. This training explains the different types of captions and things to consider when preparing to caption a video. The training also goes over various methods of captioning, such as web-based tools and computer-based captioning programs. There is even a section on how to use YouTube’s automated transcription and captioning services, which is an easy way to add captions to a short video you wish to share with friends. If taking the entire training seems like too much, you can use the “My Syllabus” tool in the training to navigate to the specific sections of interest. 

In addition to Video Captioning Essentials, there are many online resources regarding video captioning. See below for a list of our personal favorites:

• Captioning Tips: MNIT’s Office of Accessibility web page with tips, legal information, and links to other captioning resources. 
• Captioning YouTube Videos: The National Center on Disability and Access to Education (NCDAE)’s web page with a printable PDF cheat sheet, a video tutorial, and step-by-step instructions on how to caption YouTube videos.
• Closed Captioning Demo Video: a video explaining basic captioning etiquette, such as caption placement.
• How to Fix the Automatic Closed Captioning on a YouTube Video: a video demonstrating how to add closed captions to YouTube by updating and fixing the auto-transcribed captions on a video. Have you heard of the #NoMoreCRAPtions campaign aimed specifically at the poor quality captions produced if one simply uses YouTube’s auto transcribed captions? This video will show you how to fix those! 
• How to Caption ASL Videos: instructions in both ASL and English on how to caption an ASL video via Digiterp Communications.
• Vimeo's Captions and Subtitles: Vimeo’s web page providing instructions on how to add captions or subtitles to your Vimeo video.