New service for video captioning and audio description launched

Audience: ,

Dear instructors,

As part of UW–Madison’s ongoing efforts to meet the federal digital accessibility requirements under the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), the University Digital Accessibility Initiative (UDAI) is excited to announce a university-wide solution to create accessible and compliant multimedia.

As of the fall 2026 term: English-language videos now have human-generated captions and computer-generated audio descriptions automatically applied to them when they are added to the university’s enterprise Kaltura MediaSpace tool and embedded into Canvas or Kaltura Media Gallery, or when the video’s permissions are updated from “private” to “public” or “unlisted.” This new service makes it much easier for instructors to provide accessible video content and helps support student success.

What do instructors need to do this semester?

  1. Become familiar with the new Kaltura accessibility features and workflow so you understand what you’ll need to do for courses in spring 2027 and beyond. It is important to know that it can take up to six calendar days for captions and audio descriptions to generate, thus faculty must plan accordingly before requiring a video’s use.
  2. Re-embed your content to upgrade Kaltura player from v2 to v7. This is necessary for computer-generated audio descriptions to display.
  3. Review how to edit computer-generated audio descriptions, required for all course content starting in the spring 2027 term.

What is happening with foreign-language videos?

While English-language videos automatically have captions and audio descriptions applied to them, foreign-language videos still require faculty to manually request captioning and audio descriptions. More information will be provided soon.

Data privacy

Our multimedia vendor provides computer-generated audio descriptions. The university’s contract with the vendor includes data privacy and protection requirements that prohibit the vendor from using video content for other purposes.

Where can I find additional information?

Digital Accessibility @ UW–Madison is the university’s central website for digital accessibility information and contains more information on multimedia accessibility. The Learn@UW team provides general information for using the accessibility features in Kaltura and for correcting the computer-generated audio descriptions.

Support for accommodation requests

If any students in your course have disability-related accommodations for captioning or audio description, the McBurney Disability Resource Center will contact you to share workflow information for one-day human-generated captioning turnaround and professional, human-generated audio descriptions.

Thank you for your partnership

These accessibility feature enhancements reflect UW–Madison’s commitment to creating a more accessible and inclusive learning environment for all students. Accessibility is a shared responsibility, and we are committed to providing the tools, services and support that help make this work easier and more achievable for instructors.

Thank you for your partnership in helping create a more accessible UW–Madison.

Sincerely,

Tamara Walker, University Digital Accessibility Initiative (UDAI) Co-Sponsor and DoIT Academic Technology Director, Associate Vice Provost for Learning Technologies

Ruben Mota, UDAI Co-Sponsor and ADA Coordinator, Office of Compliance