Adding Captions to Video

Captions on videos need to be accurate to ensure all people receive the intended message.

Recommendations for Captioning

Option 1: Create a transcript for your video prior to making the video. This helps ensure both video quality and also makes it easier to add captions to the video, especially with YouTube.
Option 2: Edit the automatic caption produced from the video. Automatic captioning is frequently inaccurate and lacks punctuation, so it must be edited to turn the automatic captions into accessible captions

Captions should be accurate, consistent, clear, readable and equal.

Write words that you can't understand or spell in [square brackets].
Acronyms and abbreviations do not contain periods (US instead of U.S., ie instead of i.e.).
Type a website name in standard URL format, using .com and .org, all lowercase. Only include www if the speaker says it.
Capture the speaker's words, but make minor corrections to make the transcript readable. Omit stammers; filler terms like "um" and "you know"; and false starts in which the speaker says a word or two, then backs up to start the sentence over.
Each time the speaker changes write the speaker's name in all caps, followed by a colon. This should also always be the beginning of a paragraph.
Use the speaker's full name (first and last) if you know it. If you don't know their name, label them SPEAKER 1, SPEAKER 2, etc. in order of when they first speak in the file.
When someone is talking about money, use the dollar sign. Whole dollar amounts below $10 should include change ($9.00 instead of $9). Amounts above $10 should not ($100, not $100.00).
If the speaker is very clearly talking about money but doesn't use the word "dollars," include the dollar sign anyway.
For money less than one dollar, use the form $0.45 (for 45 cents). Don’t forget the zero before the decimal point.
For round numbers in the millions or above, use the word "millions," "billions," etc. to with numerals for the numbers. (so, $15 million, not $15,000,000).