Enabling in-meeting

To turn auto-transcription on in your meeting, click Live Transcript in your Zoom meeting controls, then select Enable:

Here, we also recommend checking the box for Allow participants to request Live Transcription so that the host can be aware of the captioning needs of their participants. Please note, you will need to enable live transcription for each meeting that you start and want auto-transcription for, as currently there is no way to have it turned on by default for all your meetings. 

Show/hide subtitles

After enabling automatic transcription, you can then click the caret in the Live Transcript button and select Hide Subtitle if you don’t want to see the subtitles on screen. If subtitles are hidden currently, you can click the caret and select Show Subtitle:

Only the three most recent lines of transcription will appear on screen when Show Subtitle is enabled, since the subtitles are timed to align with participants’ speech. 

Even if you hide subtitles, your participants will still be able to see them as long as they don’t have subtitles hidden. The opposite is true as well--even if your subtitles are not hidden, it’s still possible for your participants to hide them on their end. 

Accuracy

Zoom’s automatic transcriptions are computer-generated and not checked by a human prior to being displayed as on-screen, in-meeting captions. Because of this, you will see that the live transcriptions are not 100% accurate. In our February 2021 testing, we’ve calculated an average accuracy rate of about 87% for Zoom’s automatic live transcription. Nonetheless, live transcription can be a useful learning tool and a step towards making your Zoom meetings more accessible. 

According to Zoom Support, the accuracy of their live transcription feature depends on several variables, including but not limited to:

• Background noise
• Volume and clarity of the speaker’s voice
• Speaker's proficiency with the English language
• Lexicons, dialects, and accents specific to geography or community

To help improve the accuracy of live transcription, we’d recommend:

• Using headphones/earphones with a built-in microphone when possible to reduce background noise. 
• Muting yourself when you’re not talking and using the 'raise hand' feature, since the live transcription service has difficulties transcribing when speech overlaps. 
• Speaking as clearly as possible at a level that is not too quiet, but not too loud.

Please note the following limitations of Zoom’s automatic live transcription:

• Singing cannot be transcribed. 
• Currently, the only supported language is English. 

If you don’t want to use automatically generated live transcription, for accessibility or other reasons, you can use one of the following manual live captioning options:

• Type the captions yourself
• Assign a participant to type captions 
• Integrating a third-party closed captioning service
• Booking a manual captioner or CART provider

How to add closed captions yourself

To type captions yourself, click the Live Transcript button, then under ‘Assign someone to type’ select I will type:

You will then see a window appear in which you can type the captions (see screenshot below). Hit Enter on your keyboard to broadcast the captions:

Assign a participant to type closed captions

To assign someone else to type captions, click the Live Transcript button, then under ‘Assign someone to type’ select Assign a participant to type:

You’ll then see the Participant window appear. Hover over the name of the participant who you want to assign to type captions and select the More button. Then, select Assign to type closed captions:

The participant you selected will then see a window appear in which they can type the captions (see screenshot below). They will type the captions and then hit Enter on their keyboard to broadcast the captions:

Enable third-party manual captioning in-meeting

Third-party captioning via API key

Zoom can connect to third-party captioning services using an API key. Compatible captioning services include:

• 3Play Media*
• Vitac 

To ensure that your captioning needs are adequately met, be sure to clarify with the third-party provider what the nature of the captions you’re ordering are (i.e., are they computer-generated or manually generated?). Providers marked with an asterisk (*) are vendors of Emerson College.

Booking a manual captioner or CART provider

You can reach out to the following organizations for booking the services of manual captioners and CART providers:

• MA Commission for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing (MCDHH)
• The Learning Center for the Deaf (TLC)*
• Partners Interpreting*
• Catherine Zelinski*
• Ai-Media

Providers marked with an asterisk (*) are vendors of Emerson College.

Accuracy

To help improve the accuracy of third-party manual transcription, we’d recommend:

• Using headphones/earphones with a built-in microphone when possible to reduce background noise.
• Muting yourself when you’re not talking and using the 'raise hand' feature, since the live transcription service has difficulties transcribing when speech overlaps.
• Speaking as clearly as possible at a level that is not too quiet, but not too loud.

Show/hide subtitles

After enabling manual captioning, you can then click the caret in the Live Transcript button and select Hide Subtitle if you don’t want to see the subtitles on screen. If subtitles are hidden currently, you can click the caret and select Show Subtitle:

Only the three most recent lines of transcription will appear on screen when Show Subtitle is enabled, since the subtitles are timed to align with participants’ speech. 

Even if you hide subtitles, your participants will still be able to see them as long as they don’t have subtitles hidden. The opposite is true as well--even if your subtitles are not hidden, it’s still possible for your participants to hide them on their end.