Tips for Captioning and Audio Description

by Isabel Goetze (Programming Intern) 

Having the expertise needed to be an artist today is challenging. As applications and audiences are increasingly online, additional video and sound editing skills are often required. I personally have spent hours compiling and editing my work to make it more professional for digital platforms, often only completing tasks through relentless trial and error. Here, I hope to share the ways I found for including audio description and captioning. These two features are some of the best practices for videos in grant program submissions, such as for Chicago Dancemakers Forum’s Lab Artists Program. Artists can increase access to their video narratives and work samples using audio description and captioning, important methods of supporting Deaf or blind audiences, or panelists with visual and auditory disabilities. Navigating the technical process for audio description and captioning can be confusing for those who are newer to these technologies. This blog post can serve as an introductory resource for creating accessible application videos and work samples.

What is captioning, and how can I caption my videos?
In videos with speaking and important auditory elements, captioning serves as a real-time written record of the language and sound used in a video. Open Captioning provides accessibility and can also provide clarity for those newer to the English language or whatever language is used in the video. Captions/Subtitles should be easily read and accurately transcribed. There are a few ways to go about this:

1) Rev.com – paid captioning service. A quick and professional way to get accurate captioning for your video, with the option of burned-in captions and/or a separate .srt file. They also provide you with a transcript of your video. You can edit the captions as needed.

2)Veed.io and CapCut– AI generated captioning. Free and instant captioning. Unfortunately, it is not perfect. There is a need for your human brain to fix errors and adjust settings.

3) Social Media– Instagram reels are integrated with an automatic captioning feature. After recording your video, proceed to the next step and click on stickers. After that locate the captioning feature in the menu. Finalize editing your video and you are finished!

4) YouTube or Vimeo – Both offer options for adding subtitles. Downloading your file with those subtitles can be tricky depending on your account settings.

For further details, please reference Tina Childress and their resource “How to Caption Your Videos.”

In addition to captioning, a transcript of all speech in the video can provide information about the content at-a-glance. There are numerous Video-to-Text Convertor services and applications available to do this for you, but with shorter files you can do this manually by listening to the video and transcribing into a typed document. If your video has a script, you automatically have a transcript! The 2025 Lab Artists Program application offers a box where you can paste the transcript.

How does audio description work, and how can I include descriptions?
Audio description provides information about the visual content of dance work for Blind audiences or individuals/panelists with low vision. Audio description can offer details regarding location in space, facial expressions, and dance movements, while avoiding technical dance jargon. Audio description should leave the interpretation of the piece up to the audience. Here is an example of audio description for dance.

1) Professional: Hire a professional audio descriptor. Chicago Dancemakers Forum can provide recommendations; email us at info@chicagodancemakers.org. Online services like Amber Script can provide a quick and professional way to include audio descriptions. In either case, you will want to work with them to make sure that dancers are not being misgendered in the audio description.

2) DIY: Write a script for the description of the dance and provide a voiceover for the video (record yourself or a friend). You can borrow microphones for free through the Chicago Tool Library if you are needing equipment. Then, using video editing software (iMovie, Canva, Vimeo, Camtasia, Final Cut Pro, Premiere Pro, etc.), overlay the voice-over while maintaining the ability to hear the original music or audio.

For the 2025 Lab Artists Program, in addition to uploading each work sample (without audio description) directly to Submittable, applicants may also provide a URL for a version of each work sample with audio description. To have these URLs, the files need to be uploaded to an online platform such as Vimeo, YouTube, social media, or a website. Giving panelists the option to experience the work samples in different ways is recommended. 

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