The legal industry, with its vast amounts of documentation, verbal communication and visual presentations, relies heavily on precision and clarity. To ensure that everyone, regardless of ability, can access and participate in legal processes, captions, audio descriptions and other accessibility services have become essential tools. These services enhance inclusivity and compliance with legal standards, benefiting legal professionals and the public alike.
Captions, transcripts and accessible legal proceedings
Captions provide a textual representation of spoken dialogue and important sounds, ensuring that individuals who are Deaf or hard of hearing (DHOH) and others can fully participate. Here’s how some of the ways that captions are used in the legal industry:
- Courtroom proceedings: Real-time captioning is employed in courtrooms to provide immediate text of spoken words during trials, hearings and other proceedings. This ensures that individuals can follow along without missing crucial information.
- Depositions and testimonies: Captions (and transcripts) are used during depositions and testimonies, enabling all parties to access a written record of the spoken content. This is especially useful for reviewing and referencing critical points during case preparation and proceedings.
- Legal training and seminars: Many legal professionals participate in ongoing education through training videos and seminars. Adding captions to these materials ensures the materials are accessible to everyone, including those in the DHOH community and non-native speakers.
Enhancing content with audio description
Audio description provides spoken narration of visual elements, making content accessible to individuals who are blind or with low vision. In the legal industry, audio description plays can play a role in:
- Video evidence: Legal cases often involve video evidence, such as surveillance footage or recorded testimonies. Audio description ensures that individuals can understand the visual content of these videos, providing them with equal access to critical evidence.
- Visual presentations: During trials and legal presentations, visual aids like charts, graphs and images are commonly used. Audio description provides a detailed narration of these visuals, ensuring that all participants can fully engage with the presented material.
- Legal marketing and outreach: Law firms use videos for marketing, client outreach and informational purposes. Including description in these videos ensures that potential clients who are blind or with low vision can access and understand the information, promoting inclusivity and broader reach.
Other accessibility services in the legal industry
Beyond captions and audio descriptions, several other accessibility services are vital in the legal field.
- Transcription services: Accurate transcripts of court proceedings, depositions and client meetings provide a written record that can be easily reviewed and referenced. This is essential for case preparation, appeals and ensuring accuracy in legal documentation. For court reporters, Verbit’s Legal Real-Time transcription solution provides accurate, reliable and scalable real-time transcription for legal proceedings. Accessible via a secure, intuitive, web-based platform designed specifically for the court reporting community, Legal Real-Time provides live transcription for depositions, hearings, arbitrations, examinations, trials and other legal proceedings to help digital court reporters better meet their clients’ needs. (See below for more on how to extract unique insights from these transcripts.)
- Assistive technology: Tools like screen readers, speech-to-text software and magnification devices support legal professionals and clients with disabilities, allowing them to access and interact with digital content effectively.
- Accessible legal documents: Ensuring that all legal documents, contracts and forms are available in accessible formats (Braille, large print, digital text) is crucial. This ensures that individuals who are blind or with low vision can review and understand legal documents independently.
Benefits of accessibility in the legal industry
Planning for and being more accessible can help law firms and legal professionals meet the needs of all clients and staff and deliver a better overall user experience.
- Promotes equal access to justice: By implementing accessibility services, legal professionals ensure that all individuals, regardless of ability, have equal access to justice. This aligns with the principles of fairness and equality that underpin the legal system.
- Enhances communication and understanding: Accessibility tools improve clarity and comprehension of legal proceedings and documents. Captions benefit individuals with hearing loss as well as those in sound-sensitive environments, while audio descriptions provide essential context for visually impaired individuals.
- Complies with legal standards: Many countries have laws and regulations that mandate accessibility in legal services. Implementing these services ensures compliance with standards such as the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) and Section 508 of the Rehabilitation Act.
- Supports inclusive legal practices: Accessibility services benefit not only clients but also legal professionals with disabilities. This fosters an inclusive workplace and promotes diversity within the legal industry.
Future directions
As technology continues to advance, the legal industry can further boost accessibility by embracing new, innovative solutions, including:
- Artificial intelligence and machine learning: AI-powered tools like Verbit’s Captivate™ offer high-accuracy captions and transcripts, providing personalized solutions based on advanced language models and domain-specific dictionaries. Such technologies improve the accuracy and relevance of accessibility services in legal contexts.
- Generative AI for legal summaries: Tools like Verbit’s Generative AI solution, Gen.V™, can generate informative summaries of legal proceedings, depositions and meetings. These tools make transcripts more actionable and provide valuable insights for legal professionals.
- Interactive and adaptive legal platforms: Developing platforms that adapt to individual needs can further support accessibility in the legal industry. Features like customizable captions, adjustable playback speeds and interactive audio descriptions can enhance the legal experience for all users.
Rely on our team
Verbit’s legal transcription solutions are designed by legal experts who understand the reliability, accuracy and customization that the industry requires. We streamline transcription workflows, providing quicker delivery of both live and recorded legal proceedings such as depositions, hearings and examinations, as well as digital evidence like dash cam footage and 911 calls. For more details on any of these solutions, or to learn how they might work for you, reach out to our team of legal experts today.