Customer story
The University of Akron
The University of Akron is partnering with Verbit to prioritize inclusivity through captioning and transcription services for its diverse student body both on campus and online.
In a Nutshell
The University of Akron is making strides for its diverse student body and enlisting the mentality that, “inclusion is everyone’s responsibility now,” said Heather Rose, Disability Specialist and Service Coordinator. In partnership with Verbit, the university is now delivering inclusive and engaging courses and video experiences across its campus and online with accurate captioning and transcription it can trust.
The Challenge
The University of Akron was receiving an unprecedented number of accommodation requests. “Once COVID came, it turned into 70 classes that needed live captioning,” said Rose. University leaders tried to keep up with these requests, but they needed additional resources to deliver live captioning at scale.
“YouTube captions aren’t accurate enough to meet ADA compliance, but with Verbit’s, there haven’t been any issues. Making it so that everyone can participate and have that equal access is important.”
The Solution
Faced with dozens of requests and classes to manage, leaders at the University of Akron benefit from Verbit’s specialized teams and technology built to handle access needs at scale.
Verbit offers the University of Akron:
- Accurate captioning to engage its students effectively
- A user-friendly platform for seamless university use
- Technology built to handle difficult course terminology and speaker accents
- Ongoing support from experts in education and accessibility
“Verbit takes more of a hands-on approach. It’s very different than the approaches of other companies. With Verbit, we have a one-to-one relationship.”
The Results
With Verbit, the University of Akron is able to provide more equitable learning and university event experiences.
- Quick responses & support
“Verbit makes everything really easy. Support has been great and their team always gets back to me right away.”
- Access to a specialized team for education
“We’re not technicians, so tapping into resources like Verbit’s has really helped us. It’s no longer one person but a team of professionals who have the responsibility of making this happen.”
- Useful ‘how to’ resources and content
“Verbit has a nice catalog of materials to pull from that has really helped others understand the captioning process. Having those resources makes everybody feel a lot more comfortable.”
- Easy on-demand viewing
“In addition to the live captioning, we like that fact that we can get captioning for videos that are on our website so people watching these at a later time can also view it with the captions.”
About The University of Akron
The University of Akron is home to over 16,000 students from 46 states and 44 countries. It offers its diverse students more than 200 undergraduate programs and over 100 graduate programs, including a law school.