Transcripts and captions #

This page is for producers who make their episodes accessible to people who cannot hear them, and findable by search. For audio, the accessible alternative is a transcript; for video with speech, captions. The public sector section has the background on the accessibility rules (Captions and media).

Contents #

1. Transcripts for audio
2. Where the transcript goes
3. Captions for video
4. Caption files
5. The feed and transcripts
6. Checklist

Transcripts for audio #

A transcript is the full text of what is said, with speaker names, and a description of important sounds. Make it from your edited audio, not the raw recording, and correct it by listening; automatic transcripts get names and technical terms wrong.

Format it for reading:

Host: Welcome to episode 42. Today with us is <guest>.
Guest: Thank you for having me.
[Music fades out]
Host: Let's start with ...

Where the transcript goes #

A rich text field marked searchable makes the episode findable by what was said in it (Searching). Add the field as described on Building an episode class.

Captions for video #

The media field's view template writes a <video> element with no <track> element (design/standard/templates/content/datatype/view/ezmedia.tpl), so a caption file cannot be attached through the media field as shipped. Three ways around it:

1. Open captions: burn the captions into the video before upload. They work everywhere and cannot be switched off.
2. A caption track in your design: a developer overrides the media template for your design and adds <track kind="captions" srclang="en" src="...">, pointing to a WebVTT file in a second file field of your video class (Template overrides). This is design work, not a built-in feature.
3. A video service with captions, embedded on the page (Embedding a video or a stream).

For a live stream, captions come from the streaming service, if it offers them.

Caption files #

WebVTT (.vtt) and SubRip (.srt) are not listed in the shipped settings/mime.ini. Uploaded as they are, they get the type application/octet-stream, and browsers do not accept such a file as a <track>. If your design uses a caption track, the administrator adds the type first:

# settings/override/mime.ini.append.php
[vtt]
Types[]=text/vtt

See Working with your administrator.

The feed and transcripts #

The podcast feed writes no transcript element (What is not built in). Podcast apps therefore cannot fetch your transcript from the feed. Link the transcript in the show notes ("Transcript: <address>"), so it is one tap away in apps that show the description.

Checklist #

• To do: Every audio episode has a transcript on the page or one click away.
• To do: Every video with speech has captions.
• To do: Speakers are named in the transcript.
• To do: Important sounds and visual information are described.
• To do: The transcript is linked from the show notes.
• To do: The player has controls and does not start by itself (Accessible players and pages).

Related pages #

• Captions and accessible video
• Captions and media
• Accessible players and pages
• Free documentation: this page is free to copy, translate and improve under the GNU FDL 1.3.