Questions for Captioning and Transcription Vendors During Procurement Process

Introduction & Overview Get link to section Introduction & Overview

Types of Captioning Get link to section Types of Captioning

Be clear about what type(s) of captioning is needed and ask questions about each. Four basic categories are:

• Human captions for recorded video
• Human captions for live video
• Auto-captions for recorded video
• Auto-captions for live video

Platform Issues Get link to section Platform Issues

Understand how captions integrate with your video conferencing platform

• Consider all platforms on which the video will appear (including YouTube, corporate intranet, etc.)
• Does each platform offer built-in auto-captions? (i.e. Teams / Google Meet)
• Does each platform require / allow for external captions? (human or auto)
• If video is being recorded and then posted, do the captions from a live (virtual) event travel with the saved video? (If not, transcript or second set of captions needed for posted recorded video)
• Disability:IN resource: Purchasing and Licensing Accessible Video Conferencing Platforms that Work for Everyone

Caption Quality Issues Get link to section Caption Quality Issues

• Caption quality relates to:
  • Accuracy
  • Synchronicity
  • Completeness
  • Placement
• Vendor resource from 3Play Media: FCC’s Quality Standards for Captioning Video (See also 3Play Media’s RFP questions related to Caption Quality.)
• Resource from National Association of the Deaf: Closed Captioning Quality

Accessibility Issues Get link to section Accessibility Issues

• Ensure that platform, integration systems, caption controls and profile settings, etc. are accessible to and usable by people with disabilities who may be
  • Relying on captions
  • Arranging, setting up, or trouble shooting captioning for the organization
• Web Content Accessibility Guidelines relating to captioning (note: other success criteria apply to the platforms, video controls, etc.)
  • Pre-recorded captions, Success Criteria 1.2.2
  • Audio-only and Video-only (Prerecorded), Success Criteria 1.2.1
  • Captions Live, Success Criteria 1.2.4

Logistics Issues Get link to section Logistics Issues

• Turn-around time for captions / transcripts on recorded video
• Hours of operation for emergency services / tech support / help desk
• Details for uploading files for captioning / transcription (See 3Play Media RFP questions below related to online account systems and process and deliverables.)
• Ability to correct captions/transcripts

Other Video Accessibility and Inclusion Elements Related to Transcripts and Captions Get link to section Other Video Accessibility and Inclusion Elements Related to Transcripts and Captions

• Audio description (providing audio information about video elements for blind people)
  • Can captioning /transcript vendor provide?
  • Resource: Audio Description Project of the American Council of the Blind
  • WCAG accessibility requirements: Audio Description (pre-recorded), Success Criteria 1.2.5
• Sign language interpreter
  • Can captioning /transcript vendor provide?
• Language support / translation
  • What language/s are available for captions / transcription?
  • How does translation integrate with captions?

Additional Resources Get link to section Additional Resources

• Harvard / National Association of the Deaf captioning settlement (p.3, definition of captioning)
• Disability:IN resource: COVID-19 Response: Digital Accessibility and Other Best Practices for Remote Work
• Disability:IN resource: Accessible Technology Procurement Toolkit

Suggested RFP Questions (focus on human captions for recorded video) Get link to section Suggested RFP Questions (focus on human captions for recorded video)

Brought to you by:

Company Get link to section Company

• Company background and qualifications.
• Experience providing the services requested in the RFP.

Process and Deliverables Get link to section Process and Deliverables

• Describe the methods you support for submitting media files for transcription/captioning.
• Describe the output formats you provide for transcripts and caption/subtitle files.
• Describe your turnaround options and SLA.
• Ability to create captions by synchronizing an existing transcript with the video.
• Ability to output a video with encoded captions or open captions.
• Interactive transcript that is compatible with multiple video players and LMS systems.
• Ability to caption YouTube videos owned by a third party.

Quality Get link to section Quality

• Transcripts and captions must be at least 99% accurate. Describe your accuracy guaranty.
• Explain how you measure accuracy.
• Expertise transcribing technical and academic content. Describe tools and processes to address this.
• Speakers should be clearly identified.
• Must include sound effects and non-speech elements.
• A single transcriptionist must work on a file from beginning to end. Files should not be split up and worked on by numerous transcriptionists. Please explain your process.
• What countries or geographic region does your work take place in? Please provide percentages of work completed by country/region. Do you have the ability to exclude certain countries or regions from an engagement?

Online Account System Get link to section Online Account System

• Allows for delivery of transcripts and caption files.
• Upload approval: allows an authorized person to approve files before processing begins.
• Provides notifications of completed files.
• Stores all past work.
• Allows for a technical vocabulary with product names, people, or special instructions to be submitted for each file or a group of files.
• Ability to cancel files that were submitted erroneously.
• Detects if duplicate files were submitted by mistake.
• Provides the ability to preview captions on a video.
• Allows admin users to make edits to captions or the transcript.
• Allows the caption frame to be configured (e.g. number of lines, max characters per line, minimum display duration, and max characters per second). Supports multiple users and access control.
• Allows multiple departments to compartmentalize content, users, and billing.
• Provides usage reports of all account activity.
• Allows non-admins to make edits to captions/transcripts in a secure manner without logging in?

Billing Get link to section Billing

• Line item detail for each submitted file.
• Access to past invoices and payment status.
• Ability to aggregate invoices across multiple departments.

Integrations Get link to section Integrations

• Describe your integrations with video platforms.
• Describe your integrations with cloud storage systems.
• Describe your Application Programming Interface (API).

Pricing Get link to section Pricing

• Price for creating captions and transcripts for different turnarounds.
• Price for creating a caption file from an existing transcript.
• Minimum charges for any services.
• Additional charges for speaker identification.
• Bulk discounts.

Other Features Get link to section Other Features

• Audio description.
• Languages supported for captioning/transcription.
• Translation to other languages.
• Live captioning.
• Customer support, including phone support and a ticketing system.
• Knowledge center with support articles and video tutorials.
• Caption placement service that adjusts the position of captions to avoid obstructing existing onscreen text.