How to Turn on Closed Captioning on Zoom?

Zoom is a cloud-based video conferencing and practical team-building application. A Zoom conference can be recorded as a video for reference purposes or shared with coworkers who cannot attend. In addition, zoom offers several options for incorporating digital closed captioning into your Zoom meetings and webinars and providing teleconferencing captions.

This guide walks you through adding closed captions to Zoom to turn on and make them more accessible.

Enabling Closed Captioning

You can set or stop closed captioning and live transcription features as an account owner or admin with rights. For example, the host can compose closed captions or assign closed captioning to a participant or third-party service whenever the Closed captioning is set.

Account

To make closed captioning available to all users in the account, follow these steps:

  1. Log in to the Zoom web portal as an administrator to change your account’s settings.
  2. Account Management and Account Settings can be found in the navigation menu.
  3. Select Meeting from the drop-down menu.
  4. Toggle closed captions on or off in the In Meeting (Advanced) section.
  5. Click Enable or Disable to confirm the changes if a confirmation popup appears.

Group

To make closed captioning available to a group of users, follow these steps:

  1. Log in to the Zoom website as an admin with group editing permissions.
  2. Click User Management, then Group Management in the navigation menu.
  3. From the list, select the appropriate group name.
  4. Select Meeting from the drop-down menu.
  5. Toggle the Closed captioning toggle under In Meeting (Advanced) to enable or disable it.
  6. To confirm the modification, click Enable or Disable if a confirmation popup appears.

Note that if a choice is grayed out, it has been restricted at the account level and must be altered.

User

Closed captioning can be turned on for your use by following these steps:

  • Log in to Zoom’s online site.
  • Select Settings from the navigation menu.
  • Select Meeting from the drop down menu.
  • Toggle closed captions on or off in the In Meeting (Advanced) section.
  • To confirm the modification, click Enable or Disable if a confirmation popup appears.

It’s worth noting that if an option is grayed out, it’s because it’s been locked at the group or account level. Therefore, you must contact your Zoom administrator and get those settings fixed, making your video more accessible.

Viewing Closed or Live Captioning

You can access closed captions or live transcripts as a participant if they are offered during a meeting or webinar. These are also seen while within a Zoom Chamber.

To access closed captioning or live transcription during a meeting or webinar, follow these steps:

  • Log in to the Zoom smartphone application.
  • Select Settings.
  • Tap Meeting.
  • Turn on Closed Captioning.

When you’re in a session with closed captioning or live transcription, they’ll instantly display on the bottom of the page.

Requesting That the Host Allow Live Transcribing

If live transcription isn’t turned on, but you’d like it to be, you can ask the host to turn it on for this meeting without interrupting them.

  • Participate in a meeting or a webinar.
  • Tap more.
  • Obtain a Live Transcription by tapping the Request Transcription button. The host will ask you to confirm your choice for live transcription.
  • (Optional) To make this claim privately, click Request Anonymously. The meeting’s host will only be told that one of the participants wants this feature turned on.
  • Verify by tapping Request. Live transcription will commence if the host accepts the request.

Drawbacks of Real-time Transcriptions

If you can’t offer to caption manually or through a third-party source, you can use the live transcription tool, which has some limits. Live transcription is presently only available in English, and its correctness is dependent on several factors, including but not limited to:

  • There is some surrounding noise.
  • Speaker’s voice volume and clarity
  • The ability of the speaker to communicate in English
  • Geographical or community-specific lexicons and dialects

Due to these constraints, we suggest using a manual captioner or provider in your meetings and webinars if you need speech-to-text help for any conformity or accessibility purposes.

How to Use Closed Captioning in Breakout Rooms

Members can watch closed captions once they start breakout room meetings by clicking Closed Caption in the session controls. Assuming you need closed inscriptions in breakout rooms, we suggest utilizing a third-party closed inscribing service if you’re the gathering host. Before starting the breakout room meetings, ensure you give every member admittance to Type closed subtitles.

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