Customer Spotlight
UDLHE DigiCon
The Universal Design for Learning Implementation and Research Network relied on Verbit to provide live and post-production captions for hundreds of participants at its inaugural event, UDLHE DigiCon.
In a Nutshell
The Universal Design for Learning Implementation and Research Network sought to bring its successful work in education reform and innovation to life by launching an inaugural event in October 2019.
UDLHE DigiCon attracted 400 registrants and 300 live participants throughout the 7-hour event. The organization knew it wanted to provide live and post-event captioning of the event’s videos. DigiCon selected Verbit due to its ability to provide both real time and post-event services quickly and consolidated into one contract.
“We can’t just talk about UDL, we need to practice it in all we do. I am a social learning theorist. People learn by watching rather than being told [so we’re] practicing what we preach. Close captioning supports retention of content. We knew we were presenting a tremendous amount of content and wanted to support people. We do not exist independent of accessibility; we’re building on the foundation of accessibility.”
The Challenge
UDLHE had never produced a conference before, let alone one with live captioning of its sessions. The organization needed a technology partner it could trust to make a strong first impression on its engaged, paying audience. UDLHE also needed to meet the advanced needs of those joining the event digitally and globally from 12 countries and 5 continents.
UDLHE was seeking:
- A way to practice what they preach: Showcasing the importance of transcription and captioning for inclusivity
- A trusted partner: A first-time partner who was experienced and could easily deliver for its inaugural event
- Timely method to address attendee needs: Assistance addressing the accessibility needs of all conference attendees and viewers
- A low-cost solution: An inexpensive method to provide attendees with both live captioning and post-event transcription
The Solution
- Accelerated delivery speed: Unmatched speed in receiving captions and transcripts
- Higher accuracy: Supporting today’s accuracy standards
- Greater efficiency: A seamless process with minimal manual effort
The Results
Positive Attendee Feedback
“80% of attendees rated their experience at UDLHE DigiCon as ‘very good’ or ‘excellent’ and 96% want another event to be produced. The core team at UDLHE is working on quarterly meetings around themes and planning to begin broadening its event offerings globally.”
Diverse Attendee Exposure
“The event attracted a diverse group of individuals with differing roles at institutions globally – from disability department faculty to structural designers to professors. This group was exposed to real-time AI technology for captioning and transcription to aid their individual inclusion and accessibility efforts.”
Accommodation of Varying Needs
“UDLHE was able to provide alternative options for the event’s auditory content via captioning. The conference organizers anticipated that some attendees could likely be deaf or suffer from hearing loss or even process the information better with the addition of captions.”
Key Learnings & A True Partnership
“UDLHE and Verbit debriefed on key takeaways and methods to further improve the attendee experience and abilities to integrate further with technology platforms used at the conference. This willingness to adapt and build on the inaugural event’s success has led to a true partnership and discussions on collaborating on future events.”
“I appreciate the Verbit folks’ willingness to help and continue to offer more ways they could help [during the day]. It was surprising. A lot of companies would just want their name added in the program, but Verbit did the post-captioning, our logo, and offered more things. It was a genuine above and beyond more than necessary sort of thing for a company to do.”