Policy: University of Minnesota Duluth
Purpose
The University of Minnesota Duluth is committed to providing equal access to learning resources. Our vision and campus goals compel us to create a positive and inclusive campus climate for all by advancing equity, diversity, and social justice. In addition to compliance with University-wide policy and federal law, we also see this policy as a way to promote universal design principles, since video captioning can be useful for students regardless of disability status (e.g. ESL students, students studying in quiet areas, etc.).
Captioning Required
Captioning of online video is required in the following situations:
- Uncaptioned videos create a barrier to instructional material for a student who has a disability (documented with Disability Resources) which would be accommodated by captioning.
- The video is being shared in an unrestricted way.
For example, if you are not restricting access (i.e. the video is publicly available) then you can't be sure no one in the audience needs captioning, so you must do captioning.
Captioning Encouraged
Captioning of online video is strongly encouraged for any online video that will be used in the future for an undefined audience even in cases where the current audience has been restricted to a group of users who are known not to need the accommodation. For example, if you regularly use the same video each time you teach a class, then the likelihood that you may have a student in the future who needs captioning is high, so you are encouraged to caption it.
Captioning Not Required
Given the current expense, captioning is not required for any online video that will be used for a limited duration when the audience has been restricted to a group of users who are known not to need the accommodation. For example, if you are restricting access by some means such as Moodle and you know no one in the class needs captioning, then you don't need to do captioning.
Funding for Captioning
Funding is available specifically for credit courses with an enrolled student who has a disability (documented with Disability Resources) which would be accommodated by captioning.
Related Information
UM Policy on Accessibility of Information Technology
UMD Strategic Planning Campus Action Plan (see Goal 2)
Rev: September, 2012