Under the digital accessibility policy, accurate captioning of live online events is required by our Minimum Digital Accessibility Standards unless the event has an approved Accommodation-based exception request. Any event that would not be considered a regular business meeting must have either captioning or an approved accommodation-based exception. Events that would fall under this policy include any events where invitations are sent, registration is taking place, participants from outside the university are invited to participate, or the public is invited.

Captioning can be acquired from different sources, but it is important to note that automatic or AI driven captioning is not sufficient to fulfill the requirement. While these tools can be handy, they often make mistakes, which can be very confusing for participants. There is not an official list of approved live captioning vendors, but Ohio State has procured services from the following vendors in the past:

• PRI Court Reporting
  • 390 S. Washington Ave, Columbus, OH
  • Email: pri@priohio.com
  • Tel: 614-460-5000

• Automatic Sync
  • Tel: 877-AST-SYNC

• Caption First
  • PO Box 3066, Monument, CO 80132
  • Email: info@captionfirst.com
  • Tel: 800-825-5234

• Karasch and Associates
  • 1646 West Chester Pike, Suite 4, West Chester, PA 19382
  • Tel: 800-621-5689

• QuickCaption
  • Tel: 951-779-0787

Captioning services generally require 7-10 business days to arrange. The Accessibility Coordinator recommends that early communications about an event include language asking if participants will require any accommodations. Use language similar to the following:
If you require an accommodation such as live captioning or interpretation to participate in this event, please contact the Office of Research Accessibility Coordinator at oraccessibility@osu.edu. Requests made by (date 2 weeks before event) will generally allow us to provide seamless access, but the university will make every effort to meet requests made after this date.

Accommodation requests can and should be made a part of any registration form or process, and the registration should encourage requests as far in advance as possible.

It is possible to request an accommodation-based exception request, however they will only be granted in the following cases:

• The event’s audience is known in advance, and no participants require any captioning accommodations.
• The event has a robust communications plan for individuals who need accommodations and an approved plan in place to provide them, if needed.

Any questions can be directed to the Office of Research Accessibility Coordinator at oraccessibility@osu.edu. More information can be found in the further guidance on captioning from the Digital Accessibility Center.