As NC State faculty integrate multimedia into their courses more and more, it is imperative that course content is captioned. Captioning refers to the process of adding text captions to media that uses audio. Captions ensure that students who need them as a disability-related accommodation are able to access course content.

Captioning also offers other benefits, including improved accessibility for non-native English speakers, improved reading comprehension, literacy skills and search capabilities. IT Accessibility recommends proactively captioning all class multimedia as part of your efforts to create an inclusive learning environment. As a general rule, captioning should be considered whenever you use multimedia.

To assist faculty members, IT Accessibility sponsors the NC State Captioning Grant to provide funds for video captioning for official university classes:

• that have a student with a disability that requires video captioning as an accommodation; or
• for which the instructor wants to proactively caption multimedia.

Faculty can apply for the captioning grant anytime during the academic year by completing and submitting the Captioning Grant Application Form. Applications to meet the needs of a student with a disability will be given the highest priority.

For more information, contact Crystal Tenan, NC State’s IT accessibility coordinator, at accessibility@ncsu.edu or 919.513.4087.