Closed Captioning Vendors

Closed Captioning Vendors

Media posted on the Web should be made accessible to individuals with disabilities, including visually and hearing impaired people. This means providing transcripts and/or captions for audio and video. Providing captions for media is a broadly accepted accessibility standard and is an important part of the UC IT Accessibility Policy.

Free/Low-Cost Self-Captioning

This is a good option if you don’t have very many videos or if your videos tend to be relatively short. You will need someone who can dedicate some time to creating and reviewing/editing the captioning these options produce.

  1. Amara - Free
    Can create an account with UCI Google Apps login, which also links with YouTube account. Can “crowdsource” captioning, by coordinating volunteers to help with transcription.
  2. YouTube - Free
    Very basic machine translation that needs human cleanup / editing. Tools are available to add your own captions manually, or by uploading a transcript and adjusting timings.
  3. Trint - Free/Low-Cost
    Automated tool transcribes content. Simple interface allows you to edit, share, export. Transcription also available in French, Spanish, German. Free Trial, followed by $0.25/min for pay-as-you-go. Other plans available.

CC as a Paid Service

This is a good option if your department or unit produces lots of videos, if your videos tend to be long or use complicated terminology, or if you need a quick turnaround and don’t have the staff to use a free option listed above. You will still need someone who can upload/download files from the vendor and manage the vendor’s service.

  1. 3Play Media - $2.10/min
    UC has a Master Service Agreement with 3Play Media to provide captioning services. This Agreement can be used by any UCI department or team. 3Play can:
    • Assign complex or technical content to transcriptionists with a discipline-specific expertise or a familiarity with a certain accent
    • Preload keywords
    • Work with a technical vocabulary
    • Perform Spanish Captioning

    Turnaround times:
    Standard turnaround: 3 business days
    2-day, 1-day, 8-hour, 2-hour turnarounds available for added cost
    For projects with extended lead time, 7-day turnaround also offered with a further discount

    To submit an order for captioning, contact:
    Alicia Buonamano - Account Executive
    3Play Media
    alicia@3playmedia.com
    (617) 764-5189 ext. 127

  2. Rev.com - $1.25/min
    There is no UCI or system-wide contract with Rev.com, but some UCI departments and schools have used the service on an individual basis.

Live/Streaming Media Captioning

This option applies only when you are live-streaming an event and need simultaneous closed captioning. In general, expect this process to be much more expensive and to require a lot of coordination from your department/unit and your presenters.

  1. Dynamic Captioning - $100-$120/hour + $50 encoder engineering support fee*
    “We schedule and assign our captioners with focus on providing the best talent for your specific programming.” Please provide prep material with necessary terminology, names, etc. Greg Wolf (310) 770-5049
  2. Teleperformance RapidText – $65/hour, one hour minimum*
    Pricing is for online classes in a webinar-like environment; other rates for different kinds of live-stream events

Please note that these are list prices – negotiated agreements may lower costs for volume purchases.