Closed captioning, transcripts, interpretation, translation

Just like closed captioning, providing transcripts of your events is not only beneficial for people who are Deaf or hard of hearing. Transcripts can serve many purposes for many different people. For example:

• Someone who wasn’t able to make it to your event live can refer to the transcript to access the information shared at the event.
• Some people find it easier to process information by reading it than by watching or listening to it. They may prefer to read the transcript of an event rather than watch a video recording of it, or read it alongside the video as they watch it.
• A transcript is easy to scan through quickly to find certain points of particular interest, and provides the ability to search the text for certain keywords.
• While ideally we are able to provide multiple methods for people to engage with an event during and afterwards, transcripts can also be ways to fill in gaps, e.g., as an alternative to a video recording or a captioned video if you are unable to provide these.

If you are working with a closed captioning service, they can often provide you with the raw transcript of the closed captioning from the event. However, this transcript alone is usually not formatted in a way that is easy to read—weird line breaks, misheard or missing lines of speech, etc.

For an extra fee, your captioning providers may be able to provide basic editing and formatting to the transcript. However, you may still want to budget for someone from your team to do a final edit of the transcript, correcting errors like misspellings of speakers’ names or unfamiliar topic-specific jargon.

It is important to understand the difference between providing American Sign Language (ASL) interpretation and providing closed captioning. You may ask yourself why it might be necessary to provide both, or why you might provide one over the other. For some participants, captioning can be sufficient for someone to be able to participate, but they are not equivalent and one cannot simply be substituted for the other, as written English is in fact an altogether different language than ASL. In other words, just because someone understands ASL does not mean they will understand English, and vice versa. There is also no universal sign language—it may vary from location to location. 

“There is no single sign language used around the world. Like spoken language, sign languages developed naturally through different groups of people interacting with each other, so there are many varieties. There are somewhere between 138 and 300 different types of sign language used around the globe today.” (“Sign language alphabets from around the world” — Ai-Media)

When providing ASL interpretation, consider your budget and ensure that you have enough interpreters present to support the folks who need it. This will depend on the format of your event or program. As a guideline, for sessions longer than one hour, at least two interpreters will likely need to be hired so they can take breaks and trade off.

If you have ASL interpretation for your event, include an image on promotional material (especially print) that conveys “ASL interpretation.” Image examples here. 

Whenever possible, we try to work with community-based organizations to provide captioning and ASL interpretation services. Deaf Spectrum, for example, has interpreters and services that are more mindful and inclusive of the Deaf community.

We also try to work with groups that understand the topics we are discussing so they can more accurately transmit the information. If they don’t, we provide contextual information and notes in advance to support a respectful and accessible service, such as how to caption or interpret words and phrases from languages other than English.

When requesting interpreters, be sure to accurately describe what is needed and being asked of the interpreters.

If your event requires engagement from the audience and you have a participant who requires ASL interpretation, it is important to identify that participant to the interpreter and make sure they have a clear connection to that person at all times.

In the Zoom webinar format, incorporating ASL interpretation means you need to ensure that interpreters are visible throughout. You can do this by spotlighting the active interpreter for all participants to see or by enabling language interpretation in Zoom.

A major gap in our programming to date has been almost exclusively convening events in English, with the occasional exception. Offering translation and interpretation for people who communicate in languages other than English will mean we will be able to welcome more community perspectives to conversations, making the discussion and the solutions generated more representative. Providing translation services has become easier and more cost-effective for online and hybrid (online and in-person) events, thanks to advancements in platforms and third-party services.