As a business owner or manager, creating an inclusive and accessible company for everyone, including those with disabilities, is a great way to attract employees and prevent unwanted legal action. There are many ways to create an accessible environment. One way to achieve this is by captioning your meetings. You can caption your in-person and virtual meetings on Zoom or Microsoft Teams. This article will explain the importance of captioning your meetings and how it can benefit your company.

Why Captioning Your Virtual Meetings is Important

Whether you are meeting in person or over the Internet, captioning your meetings is a great way to provide accessibility to everyone involved. Now more than ever, it has become necessary that companies provide accessible, compliant, and inclusive meetings for all of their employees.

  1. Accessibility: Captioning your meetings provides accessibilityto those who are deaf or hard of hearing. Providing captions ensures that everyone can participate and engage in the discussion, regardless of their hearing ability.

  2. Compliance: Captioning your meetings can help your company comply with accessibility laws such as the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA). Failure to comply with these laws can result in legal action against your company.

  3. Inclusivity: Captioning your meetings is a simple yet effective way to show that your company is committed to inclusivity and diversity. It sends a message that everyone is welcome and valued at your company.

Benefits of Captioning Your Meetings

Aside from legal reasons, captioning can benefit your company in various ways. Countless studies have shown that captions increase viewer engagement and retention and help bring clarity to your meetings.

  1. Increased Engagement and Retention: When you provide captions for your meetings, everyone can follow along, which increases engagement and participation. Higher engagement leads to better collaboration, productivity, and decision-making. Providing captions can help ensure that everyone fully understands the content discussed in the meeting. Captions can enhance the retention of important information and reduce the need for follow-up meetings or clarification.

  2. Accountability and Record-Keeping: When you provide captions for your meeting, you create a text-based record of the discussions. Captions can help with keeping accurate meeting minutes and can assist with searching through meeting records at a later date.

  3. Better Communication: Captioning your meetings can also improve communication among team members. Those who are not fluent in the spoken language or have difficulty hearing can follow along and contribute to the conversation.

How to Caption Your Meetings

Now that we've covered why you should caption and its benefits, several options are available to help you achieve your captioning goals. Each option has benefits and challenges. The cost can be a significant factor when considering your captioning options. Still, there are low-cost ways to ensure you are providing an accessible meeting.

  1. Use Automatic Captioning: An ASR (automatic speech recognition) product like the ACE Series can be used to caption live and video conference meetings. While automated captions are a convenient way to create captions, the accuracy can sometimes be limited by the audio quality that the software picks up. Some video conferencing software like Zoom offer automatic captioning features. While Zoom-provided captioning may not be as accurate as a professional captioning service, it can still provide accessibility for those who need it.

  2. Hire a Captioning Service or Transcriptionist: Many professional captioning services can provide accurate and timely captions for your meetings. Hiring a service is more likely to provide accurate captions; however, depending on the frequency of your meetings, this can become expensive.

  3. Assign Someone to Take Notes: If a professional captioning service or automatic captioning software is unavailable, assign a notetaker to transcribe the meeting and provide captions for those needing them. While this can be the most cost-effective way to provide captions, it can also create a burden for the person assigned to caption. They must be able to type quickly with minimal errors and be available for meetings needing captions.

Captions make meetings accessible to everyone, regardless of hearing ability. They also show that your company is committed to inclusivity and diversity. You can provide captions by hiring a professional captioning service, using automatic captioning software, or assigning a notetaker.

The ACE series goes beyond meeting captioning to unlock endless possibilities for your business. Connect with a broader audience, strengthen your brand presence, and create meaningful connections across borders with multilanguage captioning and translation. Don't miss out on this game-changing technology. Take your content to new heights with the ACE series today! Enhance accessibility, captivate your audience, and revolutionize your communication with the ACE series. Get started now!

If you are interested in using an automated captioning system to help caption your meetings, call us today to learn more about the ACE automatic captioning engine.