Human-Reviewed Accessibilityfor Public-Institution Video
We help public universities and health systems make lecture capture, patient‑education, clinical training, and public‑facing video accessible — with human expertise, AI‑assisted workflow, and compliance‑focused audio description.
Campus Captions specializes in ADA Title II, Section 504, and WCAG 2.1 AA captions and audio description for lecture capture, STEM slides, patient‑education video, procedure and training media, and any institutional video that needs more than automated captions.
Why it matters
Why compliant video is harder than it looks.
Auto‑captions are not enough for most institutional video. Slides, charts, equations, anatomical diagrams, procedure demonstrations, and on‑screen instructions carry meaning that is rarely spoken aloud — and a generic captioning tool has no way to know.
A one‑hour lecture with 80 slides — or a 20‑minute patient‑education video showing a device, a diagram, and on‑screen dosing instructions — often needs slide‑ and scene‑by‑scene evaluation, targeted audio description, added pauses, and a re‑exported edit so blind and low‑vision viewers receive equivalent information.
Public universities and health systems need a workflow that accounts for actual content complexity, not a checkbox solution.
What automation typically misses
- Slides and on‑screen text never read aloud — academic or clinical
- Equations, notation, and lab data referenced as “this” or “that”
- Procedure steps, device demonstrations, and anatomical diagrams shown but not narrated
- Medication, dosage, and aftercare instructions presented visually only
- On‑screen safety warnings, charts, and vitals a low‑vision viewer would miss
- Wayfinding video, sign‑language insets, and visual cues with no spoken equivalent
Built for lecture capture, STEM slides, patient‑education, clinical training, and public‑facing institutional media — academic and clinical alike.
Two laws. One standard. One deadline window that's already closing.
Public universities and public health systems are now governed by an overlapping pair of digital‑accessibility rules — both requiring WCAG 2.1 AA, both naming uncaptioned video and missing audio description as example failures, both reaching content delivered through third‑party vendors.
Applies to state and local government entities — including public universities, community colleges, and public hospitals / public health departments. Standard: WCAG 2.1 Level AA.
Compliance dates as extended by the DOJ Interim Final Rule of April 20, 2026:
- Population 50,000+April 26, 2027
- Population under 50,000 / special districtsApril 26, 2028
Applies to any recipient of federal financial assistance from HHS — essentially every organization that takes Medicare or Medicaid, plus HHS grantees. Sweeps in virtually all hospitals, FQHCs, community health centers, university medical centers, and public health departments. Standard: WCAG 2.1 Level AA.
Compliance dates as extended by the HHS Interim Final Rule of May 7, 2026:
- 15+ employeesMay 11, 2027
- Fewer than 15 employeesMay 10, 2028
WCAG 2.1 AA satisfies both tracks. Remediation done for one rule carries directly over to the other.
Public/county hospitals and public university medical centers are reached by both rules — the earliest applicable deadline controls. Do the work once, satisfy both.
Agency action (OCR / DOJ — for a Medicare‑participating hospital, loss of federal funding is existential) and a private right of action. Web‑accessibility lawsuit volume rose ~27% in 2025.
What we do
Three services. One accessible video library.
Built specifically for public universities and health systems tackling video remediation at scale.
Captioning & Accessibility Review
Human review of captions for accuracy, terminology, speaker identification, and domain vocabulary — academic or clinical.
- 99%+ accuracy on academic, STEM, and clinical content
- Specialist review of names, terms, notation, and medical terminology
- Works alongside audio description for full WCAG conformance
Audio Description
For lectures, slide decks, and STEM classes — and for patient‑education, procedure, and clinical training video.
- Slide‑, scene‑, and frame‑by‑frame evaluation of what carries meaning
- Targeted description where narration alone falls short
- Inserted pauses or extended edits when needed
Compliance‑Focused Remediation
We help institutions prioritize what matters most under Title II and Section 504.
- Required course content and high‑exposure public‑facing patient/public‑health content first
- Active accommodation and effective‑communication requests as hard overrides
- Documented record of what was remediated and why
Our methodology
Built to a documented standard — not the auto-caption floor.
Captions are produced to the DCMP Captioning Key. Audio description runs in extended mode, with a per‑slide and per‑scene workflow that decides what gets described and why. The same essentiality scoring and "already conveyed" test apply identically to a lecture slide and a medical procedure diagram — the methodology does not change with content type.
Captions built to the DCMP standard
The Described and Captioned Media Program Captioning Key is the field reference adopted across U.S. educational media. Auto‑generated captions satisfy none of its core requirements.
- Verbatim accuracy with speaker identification
- Reading rate calibrated to grade level (≤ 160–180 wpm)
- Two lines maximum, ≤ 32 characters per line
- Non-speech audio (laughter, music, key sound effects)
- Synchronized within DCMP timing tolerances
- Punctuation and case used for comprehension, not style
Extended AD — nothing essential gets cut
Standard AD squeezes descriptions into natural pauses and routinely drops essential visual information. We pause the video to insert each description in full.
- 01Essentiality scoring (0–3)Each visual is rated for severity of loss if undescribed.
- 02“Already conveyed” testIf narration covers it, no AD insertion — even in extended mode.
- 03Indexical density reviewPointers like “this,” “here,” “that one” are flagged for description.
- 04Script drafted at ~2.5 wpsNarration pace calibrated for booth recording, not rushed reads.
- 05Two deliverables producedEditorial Reference Document plus Recording Script for the narrator.
What you receive
Three files. Three reasons. Per video.
For every video we deliver three distinct files — they serve different users, different access modes, and different regulatory clauses, and they cannot be substituted for one another.
Caption File (SRT / VTT)
Time-coded captions for in-player display, DCMP-compliant. Serves D/deaf and hard-of-hearing viewers watching the video itself.
Audio Description Track
Extended AD edit with inserted pauses. Serves blind and low-vision viewers, with a Reference Document and Recording Script behind it.
Descriptive Transcript
A unified, readable document combining narration, captions, and described visuals. Serves screen-reader users, low-bandwidth access, and search/indexing.
Producing all three is what moves a program from “captioned” to genuinely accessible — and from minimum compliance to defensible excellence.
How it works
From upload to compliant in 4 steps.
Submit
Share video files or links via secure, access-controlled cloud file exchange — least-privilege handling and zero-data-retention configurations for any AI-assisted step. PHI-aware intake and BAA available where the engagement involves protected health information. Bulk transfers supported for backlog remediation.
Process
We caption and describe using AI plus human review — every file gets a real reviewer's eyes before delivery.
Receive
Get compliant caption files (SRT, VTT, SCC) and AD tracks within your chosen turnaround window.
Deliver
Files returned in standard formats ready to publish to YouTube, Kaltura, Panopto, Canvas, Brightspace, Echo360, hospital CMS, patient portals, intranet clinical LMS, or any public-health platform.
Data security, PHI & HIPAA
Built for hospital procurement and university IT security alike.
Clinical compliance teams gate on this. Our security posture is the same posture university buyers never made us advertise — surfaced here so risk, privacy, and procurement can sign off without a separate questionnaire round.
PHI-aware handling
Hospital video may contain protected health information. Access-controlled intake, least-privilege handling, and secure deletion on a defined schedule.
BAA-ready
A Business Associate Agreement can be executed where the engagement involves PHI.
Endpoint & disk encryption
Full-disk encryption (FileVault 2) and endpoint protection (Microsoft Defender for Business) on every device handling client media.
Zero-data-retention AI
All AI-assisted steps run under no-training / zero-data-retention API configurations. U.S.-based subcontractors under signed agreements.
HECVAT-aligned procurement
A HECVAT-aligned vendor security documentation package is available on request for procurement, IT security, and compliance reviews.
AI transparency
AI is used only for synthetic narration voice and assistive triage — never to decide what a visual means. Human judgment adjudicates every accessibility decision.
The security and defensibility stories reinforce each other: the same per-video evaluation record that answers an OCR review is produced under the same controlled, PHI-aware workflow that protects the source material.
The Defensibility Report.
Every video produces a per-video evaluation report that documents what was done, what was deliberately not done, and why — grounded in WCAG, Title II, and Section 504. Exactly what answers an OCR or DOJ compliance review, or a plaintiff's demand letter.
"Did the institution make a good-faith, documented effort to meet the standard?" That is the question a Title II or Section 504 review ultimately asks. A per-video evaluation report — written, cited, and signed off — is the answer.
Sample totals from a single 25-minute institutional video report.
Backlog remediation
Scored, ranked, and routed — not alphabetized.
Public YouTube health channels, LMS lecture libraries, patient portals, intranet clinical training, and public health department sites are scored on a defensible rubric. The highest-risk content rises to the top, so the first dollars of remediation buy the most exposure reduction.
Public-facing patient/public-health content, high-traffic channels, and enrolled-student exposure — not just raw view count.
How much meaning lives in slides, charts, anatomical diagrams, procedure steps, or on-screen instructions.
Any student accommodation, patient accommodation, or effective-communication request is a hard override to Critical.
Band A — Critical
Captioned immediately. Scheduled for AD in the current cycle.
Band B — Scheduled
Queued into the production pipeline by semester.
Band C — Monitor
Low risk; reviewed on annual cadence or when content changes.
Same approach behind the LMS or clinical-training wall — Brightspace, Canvas, Echo360, hospital intranets, and patient portals — where most enrolled-student and patient-facing exposure actually happens.
Transparent Pricing
Pricing built for what the work actually requires.
Not all institutional video is the same — and neither is the work required to make it accessible. Campus Captions prices based on content complexity, not flat rates that favor simple jobs and shortchange hard ones.
Closed Captioning
Pricing depends on audio clarity, speaker count, technical or clinical vocabulary, and accuracy requirements. A clean single‑speaker recording is priced differently from a multi‑speaker session with discipline‑specific terminology or poor source audio.
Audio Description
Pricing depends on visual complexity, slide density, and whether a re‑exported edit is required. A promo, fireside chat, or patient testimonial is priced differently from a dense STEM lecture or a slide‑and‑diagram‑heavy clinical training module that needs slide‑ and scene‑by‑scene evaluation, added pauses, and a new embedded description track.
In both cases, you're paying for the complexity of the actual content — not a flat rate that under‑serves your hardest material or overcharges your simplest jobs.
Per minute of video
Standard 5‑Day Turnaround
Starting at $1.65/min
Built to DCMP standards
Every caption file we deliver follows the Described and Captioned Media Program (DCMP) Captioning Key — the benchmark for educational accessibility:
- Verbatim captions of all spoken dialogue and meaningful sound effects
- Accurate speaker identification and non‑speech audio cues
- Proper reading speed (≤160–180 wpm) for student comprehension
- Synchronized timing within ±2 frames of the corresponding audio
- Correct grammar, spelling, and punctuation — no auto‑caption shortcuts
Per minute of video
Concise, human‑written description that fits into existing pauses — ideal for simpler videos where most visuals are already explained out loud, such as a patient testimonial or fireside chat.
In‑depth description for slide‑heavy lectures, dense STEM material, and visual-heavy clinical training or patient-education modules — slide‑ and scene‑by‑scene analysis, added pauses, and a new edit/export so blind and low‑vision viewers get equivalent information.
All visual analysis and description work is done by human experts; we only use AI for the synthetic narration voice, never to decide what the visuals mean.
1‑minute minimum per file. All files rounded up to the nearest whole minute.
Best value
CC + AD Bundles
5-Day Standard CC + AD, billed per minute.
Not a basic captioning tool
Automation versus specialized human review.
Generic auto‑caption tools are fast, but routinely miss meaning carried by slides, diagrams, procedures, and on‑screen instructions. Campus Captions is human‑evaluated, content‑specific, and compliance‑oriented.
Why Campus Captions
Why public institutions choose Campus Captions.
Specialized in public-institution video — academic and clinical
Lecture capture, STEM, patient education, clinical training, and public-facing media — not generic corporate video.
Focused on Title II, Section 504 & WCAG 2.1 AA
Every decision is anchored in the dual-track regulations now governing public universities and public health systems.
Better than generic automation for visual-heavy content
Auto-caption tools miss meaning carried by slides, equations, diagrams, procedures, and on-screen instructions. We don't.
Human judgment for institutional meaning
Real reviewers decide what a slide, diagram, or procedure actually conveys — not just what was transcribed from speech.
Reliable remediation at scale
Designed for institutions with full backlogs of lectures, courses, patient-education, training, and public-facing media.
Public-sector workflows from day one
Built around how accessibility offices, instructional designers, compliance/risk officers, and media teams actually work.
Frequently asked
Answers for accessibility, compliance, and risk teams.
Ready to make your institution's video accessible — academic or clinical?
If your university, hospital, health system, or public health department has lecture recordings, patient‑education, training, or public‑facing video that needs accessibility review, Campus Captions can help you identify what needs audio description and deliver a compliant, human‑reviewed result.