Make Your Videos Inclusive with Transcripts and Captions in Microsoft Stream
Have you or your viewers experienced any of the following:
- Captions that don’t match what’s being said;
- Transcripts full of errors; or
- Auto-captions misnaming people or terms?
If so, it’s time to make your videos more accessible for everyone—especially those who rely on accurate transcripts and captions.
Note! This article focuses on how to add transcripts and captions in one language at a time (i.e. either English or French). Future editions will cover how to add bilingual transcripts and captions.
Transcripts and Captions Aren’t Extras—They’re Essential!
- Support your colleagues who are deaf, deafened, or hard of hearing so that they can follow along with on-screen text.
- Improve your audience’s ability to comprehend your content. Captions and transcripts are essential for different learning styles and are a great help for those that need to review things at their own pace.
- Search for key terms or create reports, meeting notes, and executive summaries by reusing video transcripts—no need to rewatch or guess!
How to Add Transcripts and Captions
Step 1: Record Your Meeting in Microsoft Teams
In order to enable transcripts and captions, you must record your meeting.
- In Teams, select More > Start recording > Start transcription.
- After the meeting, the recording will either be saved to:
- OneDrive (if you initiated the meeting); or
- SharePoint’s “Recordings” folder (for channel meetings).
Step 2: Access Your Video Recording
- From Teams: First, go to the relevant meeting chat or channel. Then, open the Recap tab and select Open in Stream.
- From Stream: Go to the Stream website and use the different filters (e.g. “Created by me,” “Meetings,” etc.) to find your video.
Step 3: Review and Edit the Transcript and Captions
- Transcripts are generated automatically.
- Tip! If the transcript and captions are missing, go to Video Settings > Transcript and Captions and select Generate. Then, select the language and confirm.
- Review the transcript in the panel on the right.
- Hover over any section to reveal the Edit button.
- Make any necessary corrections (e.g. names, typos), then refresh to apply the changes.
- Play the video and follow along to catch any errors.
Heads-up! Auto-generated transcripts and captions are a great start, but they can contain inaccuracies. Always review and edit them for clarity. Any changes you make to the transcript will automatically be applied to the captions as well . To preview the captions, hover over the video and click the “CC” (“closed captioning”) icon.
Start Making Your Videos More Inclusive Today!
By following the steps outlined in this article, you can easily make your videos more inclusive. Please share your experience with the IT Accessibility Office and tell us how implementing captions and transcripts has enhanced your video content.
Have you faced any challenges along the way? If you have a question about digital accessibility or need guidance, please reach out to us through our intake form or send us an inquiry at EDSC.TI-IT.A11Y.ESDC@hrsdc-rhdcc.gc.ca.