Why captions and transcripts are essential for an inclusive learning environment in higher education 

Providing inclusive education is more important than ever to college and university leaders with upcoming ADA Title II compliance requirements coming. While most higher education leaders’ goals to provide greater equity in lecture halls are of course principle-based, they’re likely being expedited due to the April 2026 ADA Title II compliance deadline approaching. Luckily, there are easy fixes your institution can implement now and an all inclusive subscription plan to consider to make for more equitable learning and friendlier campus environments.

How and Why Tackling Equitable Learning is Possible

Higher education institutions are seeking scalable solutions to ensure all video, audio, and digital content meets accessibility standards. Campus Complete, Verbit’s comprehensive accessibility subscription for universities, helps campuses implement consistent captioning, transcription, translation, and audio description workflows to support full digital accessibility and Title II readiness.

According to Disabled Students UK, a student-led advocacy group, students with disabilities face accessibility issues at schools and universities that make their experience qualitatively different from students without disabilities. These challenges highlight the need for an inclusive learning environment that addresses the needs of all students. The group cites a report from University College London that found 58% of learners with disabilities had been made to feel unwelcome at the university due to their disability.

“The outcomes of the situation are damning,” the group says. “The Office for National Statistics data shows the proportion of disabled people who have a degree is almost half of the proportion of non-disabled people, a situation that has not improved over the last 9 years.” This stark difference underscores the importance of equitable learning practices in higher education.

The Equality Act of 2010 protects individuals’ civil rights regardless of gender, sex, age, religion, political affiliation, disability, marriage status or sexual orientation, and requires employers make “reasonable adjustments” to accommodate people with disabilities. These accessibility requirements extend to schools and universities, promoting equitable practices in education. However, Disabled Students UK says there often is a difference between what the law says and what schools and universities have in place, highlighting the need for improved accessibility standards and ADA compliance.

Below are a few simple ways that captions, transcripts, and audio description can help accommodate students with disabilities and create a more inclusive learning environment.

Inclusive Education and Access for All

In educational environments, it’s increasingly important to provide students with as many resources as possible to bridge the digital divide. Thankfully, in many schools and universities, technology has found a place in the classroom over the last decade. Gone are the transparencies and overhead projectors and in their place are student laptops and interactive smart boards.

Though student learning environments can change, the accessibility of those learning spaces should not. In-class captions and captioned video instruction, transcripts and audio description can help make classrooms and course content inclusive for all students, including those with learning disabilities. Forthcoming requirements from ADA Title II will push university and higher education leaders to offer more inclusive environments that meet more student needs by April 2026.

Captions in the Classrooms

First and foremost, captions provide a critical link to education, entertainment, news and emergency information for the Deaf community and HoH community, comprising of individuals navigating hearing loss. They make audio and audiovisual materials accessible for millions of people and help satisfy accessibility standards and regulations. Closed captioning and live captions are essential tools for effective communication and equal access in educational settings.

In addition to making content accessible for students who are Deaf or have hearing loss, studies have shown, and schools have found, that adding captions to live lectures, prerecorded videos and other digital content improves comprehension, engagement, retention and the overall learning experience for all students and not just those requiring accessible content. They also can be a valuable tool for teachers looking to address the diverse learning needs of all students, including auditory learners and visual learners, and can be helpful for instructors looking to differentiate their lessons.

A study conducted by San Francisco State University provided video learning materials with captions to one group of students and the same video materials without captions to another. The students given the captioned materials were found to be more engaged and responsive to questions and demonstrated an improvement of one full grade point versus those students who did not view the captioned content.

Another survey showed a nearly 10% increase in recall accuracy in students viewing captioned content versus those learning without captions. This demonstrates the power of captions in enhancing educational content and improving learning outcomes.

Captions also enable students to take their online video homework anywhere. Walk into a busy coffee shop or café and you’re likely to find students working on their laptops. These typically aren’t the quietest of environments, but adding captions to online course materials means that students can study and learn (or, let’s be honest, watch the latest viral cat video) even in environments with significant background noise.

They also are beneficial to English language learners and non-native English speakers. Captions give ESL students the opportunity to review confusing materials or reference difficult or complex terms that they may have had trouble translating without a written reference. This makes captions an invaluable tool for promoting language acquisition and comprehension in virtual classrooms and hybrid learning environments.

Transcripts for Students

Captions provide the added benefit of transcripts. Teachers can share a transcript of the captioned video, enabling students to read along in class, take notes and have a printed study guide handy to review later or share with friends who missed the class. Lecture transcripts are particularly useful for students who may have difficulty processing auditory information or those who prefer to review material at their own pace.

Further embracing technology, some schools are enhancing student learning with Gen.V, Verbit’s new generative AI tool. Gen.V quickly analyzes a transcript, extracts key information and provides automatic summarizations, keyword and SEO highlights and headline suggestions. With Gen.V, students gain even greater value and insights from their Verbit-produced transcripts. This innovative use of voice recognition technology demonstrates how captioning software can be leveraged to create more accessible and engaging learning experiences.

Audio Description for Course Materials & Video Content

Much as captions provide a visual way for individuals who are Deaf or have hearing loss to experience sound, audio description provides an audio means for people who are blind or with low vision to experience video. This service is an essential auxiliary aid for ensuring equal access to visual content.

The service inserts audio-narrated descriptions of a video’s key visual elements, such as onscreen actions, characters, costumes and text appearing in graphics in the video, into natural pauses between the program’s dialogue. The quality of audio description depends not only on the accuracy of the descriptions but also on the audio quality of the narration.

And like captions, adding audio description to video course materials can provide an additional resource to students, help them focus on the material, increase in-class engagement and offer another way for teachers to connect. This is particularly beneficial for visual learners who may struggle with purely auditory content.

Adopt More Equitable Practices with Verbit’s Technology

Making course materials accessible shouldn’t feel daunting. Verbit serves as a trusted partner for all university transcription and captioning needs. Our access solutions are designed to increase student engagement and serve disability requirements for both live courses and recorded media. We understand the importance of accommodation requests and strive to meet the needs of all students in compliance with Section 508, Title II, and other federal accessibility laws.

Our services include real-time transcriptions, synchronized captions, and high-quality audio description, all designed to enhance video accessibility and support diverse learning styles. We work with various video platforms and lecture capture systems to ensure seamless integration of our accessibility solutions.

Verbit’s commitment to equitable teaching and learning is reflected in our 99% accuracy rate for captions and transcripts. This high level of caption accuracy ensures that all students, regardless of their abilities or learning preferences, can fully engage with online lectures and other educational content.

Contact us today for more information on how we can help make your course content inclusive and provide tools that make for more accessible learning environments for your students. We’d love to help supporting your institution’s commitment to inclusive education and equitable learning.

Accessible learning, no roadblocks.