Human-Reviewed Accessibilityfor University Video
We help universities make lecture recordings, course videos, and public‑facing academic media accessible — with human expertise, AI‑assisted workflow, and compliance‑focused audio description.
Campus Captions specializes in ADA Title II, WCAG 2.1 AA, captions, and audio description for lecture capture, STEM slides, training videos, and academic media that need more than automated captions.
Why it matters
Why compliant video is harder than it looks.
Auto‑captions are not enough for most academic videos. Slides, charts, equations, diagrams, and visual demonstrations carry meaning that is rarely spoken aloud — and a generic captioning tool has no way to know.
A one‑hour lecture with 80 slides may need more than captioning. It often requires slide‑by‑slide evaluation, targeted audio description, added pauses, and a re‑exported edit so blind and low‑vision students receive equivalent information.
Universities need a workflow that accounts for actual lecture complexity, not a checkbox solution.
What automation typically misses
- Slide decks where the on‑screen text is never read aloud
- Equations and notation referenced as “this” or “that”
- Charts, diagrams, and demonstrations that carry the lesson
- Visual cues a blind or low‑vision student would miss entirely
Built for lecture capture, slide decks, STEM content, and university media.
The exposure is now.
On April 24, 2027, the U.S. Department of Justice's Title II rule on digital accessibility will take effect for state and local government entities — including public universities and community colleges in New York State.
Every prerecorded video on a public-facing university platform must now meet WCAG 2.1 Level AA. That means captions at 99%+ accuracy, audio description on meaningful visual content, and live captions on streamed events.
What we do
Three services. One accessible video library.
Built specifically for higher‑education departments tackling video remediation at scale.
Captioning & Accessibility Review
Human review of captions for accuracy, terminology, speaker identification, and academic vocabulary.
- 99%+ accuracy on academic and STEM content
- Specialist review of names, terms, and notation
- Works alongside audio description for full access
Lecture Audio Description
For lectures, slide decks, STEM classes, and recorded lessons.
- Slide‑by‑slide evaluation of what carries meaning
- Targeted description where the audio alone falls short
- Inserted pauses or extended edits when needed
Compliance‑Focused Remediation
We help departments prioritize what matters most under Title II.
- Required course content first
- High‑risk public and training content next
- Documented record of what was remediated and why
Our methodology
Built to a documented standard — not the auto-caption floor.
Captions are produced to the DCMP Captioning Key. Audio description runs in extended mode, with a per‑slide workflow that decides what gets described and why.
Captions built to the DCMP standard
The Described and Captioned Media Program Captioning Key is the field reference adopted across U.S. educational media. Auto‑generated captions satisfy none of its core requirements.
- Verbatim accuracy with speaker identification
- Reading rate calibrated to grade level (≤ 160–180 wpm)
- Two lines maximum, ≤ 32 characters per line
- Non-speech audio (laughter, music, key sound effects)
- Synchronized within DCMP timing tolerances
- Punctuation and case used for comprehension, not style
Extended AD — nothing essential gets cut
Standard AD squeezes descriptions into natural pauses and routinely drops essential visual information. We pause the video to insert each description in full.
- 01Essentiality scoring (0–3)Each visual is rated for severity of loss if undescribed.
- 02“Already conveyed” testIf narration covers it, no AD insertion — even in extended mode.
- 03Indexical density reviewPointers like “this,” “here,” “that one” are flagged for description.
- 04Script drafted at ~2.5 wpsNarration pace calibrated for booth recording, not rushed reads.
- 05Two deliverables producedEditorial Reference Document plus Recording Script for the narrator.
What you receive
Three files. Three reasons. Per video.
For every video we deliver three distinct files — they serve different users, different access modes, and different regulatory clauses, and they cannot be substituted for one another.
Caption File (SRT / VTT)
Time-coded captions for in-player display, DCMP-compliant. Serves D/deaf and hard-of-hearing viewers watching the video itself.
Audio Description Track
Extended AD edit with inserted pauses. Serves blind and low-vision viewers, with a Reference Document and Recording Script behind it.
Descriptive Transcript
A unified, readable document combining narration, captions, and described visuals. Serves screen-reader users, low-bandwidth access, and search/indexing.
Producing all three is what moves a program from “captioned” to genuinely accessible — and from minimum compliance to defensible excellence.
The Defensibility Report.
Every video produces a per-video evaluation report that documents what was done, what was deliberately not done, and why — grounded in WCAG and the DOJ rule. If external review ever occurs, the record exists.
“Did the university make a good-faith, documented effort to meet the standard?” That is the question a Title II review ultimately asks. A per-video evaluation report — written, cited, and signed off — is the answer.
Sample totals from a single 25-minute lecture report.
Backlog remediation
Scored, ranked, and routed — not alphabetized.
Public YouTube channels and LMS lecture libraries are scored on a defensible rubric. The highest-risk content rises to the top, so the first dollars of remediation buy the most exposure reduction.
View count, channel placement, public vs. internal.
How much meaning lives in slides, charts, or demonstrations.
Any complaint or active accommodation request is a hard override to Critical.
Band A — Critical
Captioned immediately. Scheduled for AD in the current cycle.
Band B — Scheduled
Queued into the production pipeline by semester.
Band C — Monitor
Low risk; reviewed on annual cadence or when content changes.
Same approach behind the LMS wall — Brightspace, Canvas, Echo360 — where most enrolled-student exposure actually happens.
How it works
From upload to compliant in 4 steps.
Submit
Share video files or links with us through secure, access-controlled cloud file exchange. Bulk transfers supported for backlog remediation.
Process
We caption and describe using AI plus human review — every file gets a real linguist's eyes before delivery.
Receive
Get compliant caption files (SRT, VTT, SCC) and AD tracks within your chosen turnaround window.
Deliver
All files are returned in standard formats ready to publish to YouTube, Kaltura, Panopto, Canvas, or any LMS.
Transparent Pricing
Pricing built for what the work actually requires.
Not all university video content is the same — and neither is the work required to make it accessible. Campus Captions prices based on content complexity, not flat rates that favor simple jobs and shortchange hard ones.
Closed Captioning
Pricing depends on audio clarity, speaker count, technical vocabulary, and accuracy requirements. A clean single‑speaker recording is priced differently from a multi‑speaker session with discipline‑specific terminology or poor source audio.
Audio Description
Pricing depends on visual complexity, slide density, and whether a re‑exported edit is required. A promo or fireside chat is priced differently from a dense STEM lecture that needs slide‑by‑slide evaluation, added pauses, and a new embedded description track.
In both cases, you're paying for the complexity of the actual content — not a flat rate that under‑serves your hardest material or overcharges your simplest jobs.
Per minute of video
Standard 5‑Day Turnaround
Starting at $1.65/min
Built to DCMP standards
Every caption file we deliver follows the Described and Captioned Media Program (DCMP) Captioning Key — the benchmark for educational accessibility:
- Verbatim captions of all spoken dialogue and meaningful sound effects
- Accurate speaker identification and non‑speech audio cues
- Proper reading speed (≤160–180 wpm) for student comprehension
- Synchronized timing within ±2 frames of the corresponding audio
- Correct grammar, spelling, and punctuation — no auto‑caption shortcuts
Per minute of video
Concise, human‑written description that fits into existing pauses, ideal for simpler videos where most visuals are already explained out loud.
In‑depth description for slide‑heavy lectures and complex educational content, including slide‑by‑slide analysis, added pauses, and a new edit/export so blind and low‑vision learners get equivalent information.
All visual analysis and description work is done by human experts; we only use AI for the synthetic narration voice, never to decide what the visuals mean.
1‑minute minimum per file. All files rounded up to the nearest whole minute.
Best value
CC + AD Bundles
5-Day Standard CC + AD, billed per minute.
Not a basic captioning tool
Automation versus specialized human review.
Generic auto‑caption tools are fast, but often miss meaning in slides and visuals. Campus Captions is human‑evaluated, lecture‑specific, and compliance‑oriented.
Why Campus Captions
Why universities choose Campus Captions.
Specialized in academic lecture content
Lecture capture, slide decks, STEM classes, and recorded coursework — not generic corporate video.
Focused on Title II & WCAG 2.1 AA
Every decision we make is anchored in current accessibility regulation and standards.
Better than generic automation for slide‑heavy content
Auto‑caption tools miss the meaning carried by slides, equations, and diagrams. We don't.
Human judgment for educational meaning
Real reviewers decide what a slide actually conveys — not just what was transcribed from speech.
Reliable remediation at scale
Designed for departments with full backlogs of lectures, courses, and public‑facing media.
Higher‑ed workflows from day one
Built around how accessibility offices, instructional designers, and media teams actually work.
Frequently asked
Answers for accessibility and compliance teams.
Ready to make lecture video accessible?
If your department has lecture recordings, course videos, or slide‑heavy academic content that needs accessibility review, Campus Captions can help you identify what needs audio description and deliver a compliant, human‑reviewed result.