Live Captioning Overview for Zoom and Google
Automatic vs. Human Captioning
Automatic captioning
Fully automatic speech recognition technology creates captions in real-time. Automatic captioning can be useful to most people, including hearing individuals who benefit from audio prompts, such as some people with learning disabilities and some people who speak English as an additional language. It can also be useful in situations where audio quality is not optimal. The accuracy of automatic captioning varies widely based on speaker, mic-placement, accent, terminology, and other uncontrollable factors.
Human captioning
Human captioning involves a human typing in real-time while someone is speaking or while a video is playing. Human captioning is essential for Deaf and some Hard-of-Hearing people to fully participate.
Live Captioning Guides
Captioning Type by Audience
Audience |
Zoom: Automatic Captioning |
Google Meet: Automatic Captioning |
Google Slides: Automatic Captioning |
Zoom: Human Captioning |
---|---|---|---|---|
Can be used in classroom |
Yes, unless there is a student with a captioning accommodation |
Yes, unless there is a student with a captioning accommodation |
Yes, unless there is a student with a captioning accommodation |
Yes |
Can be used in small groups |
Yes, if no one requests human captioning |
Yes, if no one requests human captioning |
Yes, if no one requests human captioning |
Yes |
Can be used within a School/Unit/Department |
Yes, if no one requests human captioning |
Yes, if no one requests human captioning |
Yes, if no one requests human captioning |
Yes |
Can be used for public events |
Yes, if all are true:
|
Yes, if all are true:
|
Yes, if all are true:
|
Yes |
Captioning Features by Platform
Function |
Zoom: Automatic Captioning |
Google Meet: Automatic Captioning |
Google Slides: Automatic Captioning |
Zoom: Human Captioning |
---|---|---|---|---|
Can provide a transcript |
Yes | No | No | Yes |
Captions can be viewed in post-event recording |
Yes (the recording is retranscribed if you have enabled audio transcription) |
N/A | N/A |
Yes (and the recording is also automatically transcribed if you have enabled audio transcription) |
Can be corrected in real-time |
No | No | No | Yes |
Can indicate a change in speaker | Yes, in the transcript window |
Yes, automatically labels speakers by name |
No | Yes, provided by human captioning vendor |
Supported in breakout rooms | No |
N/A NYU Google Meet does not currently support breakout rooms |
N/A | Yes |
Can be used outside of video conferencing |
No |
No |
Yes, only speaker hosting presentation | No |
Participants can turn captions on/off | Yes | Yes | No | Yes |
Currently supports languages other than English | No | No | No |
Yes, if the language is supported by the vendor |
Censors content deemed to be explicit |
No | Yes, uses asterisks |
Yes, uses asterisks |
No |
Engine type (how are the captions generated) |
ASR (Automatic Speech Recognition) |
ASR (Automatic Speech Recognition) |
ASR (Automatic Speech Recognition) |
Human captioner |
Notes |
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NYU-approved human captioning vendors |