Why you should be using captions in your classroom

Do you ever switch on captions when you’re watching video content online? Maybe it’s because of a hard-to-understand accent, or because you’re watching YouTube on the train. But there's an educational benefit to captioned video content, and it starts with creating a more inclusive classroom environment and ends with better academic outcomes for all students! 

In this blog post, we’ll be exploring why we should be using captioned video content as the default in our classrooms. If you’ve ever wondered:

• What is legally required of us as teachers to create an accessible classroom for our students with additional needs?
• How are captions beneficial for every student in our classroom, regardless of age, reading level or academic ability?
• How can we implement captions in our day-to-day classroom routine in an authentic, meaningful and effective way?

… then this blog post is for you! Read on to learn more.

What are captions?

Captions, distinct from subtitles, are timed text files that provide a transcript of a video’s dialogue, sound effects, music and any other audio that contributes to the understanding of the content (subtitles, on the other hand, have historically been used to describe timed text on foreign language films, assuming the viewer can hear the audio but not understand the language - although the distinction between the two terms is becoming increasingly blurred).

Captions provide crucial accessibility for the 360 million people worldwide who are deaf or hard of hearing by allowing them to access the meaning of audio/visual content at the same level as their hearing peers. Captions should contain all the information one would need to understand what is being said, who is saying it, and how sound and music support the context of the subject matter.

Why are captions important for deaf and hard of hearing students?

In Australia, at least 2 in every 1,000 school-aged children are diagnosed with hearing loss. For these students, and those with other disabilities, equal access to learning opportunities is a legal right. Teachers and education providers have an obligation to take reasonable steps to ensure that the course or program is designed in such a way that the student is… able to participate in the learning experiences (including the assessment and certification requirements) of the course or program… on the same basis as a student without a disability, and without experiencing discrimination (Disability Standards for Education, 2005).

In an age where we frequently use video content in our classrooms to engage, inspire and educate, it is imperative that the resources we use are able to be accessed by all of our students. Captions are a critical component of the reasonable adjustments we need to make to give students with hearing loss access to educational content ‘on the same basis as a student without a disability’.

And captions aren’t just important for deaf and hard of hearing students. They can benefit students with other additional needs, such as autism, as well as students who are learning English as an Additional Language (EAL). So even if you don’t currently have a student with hearing loss in your class, captions on educational video content are likely to directly support a number of your other students.

Can captions support the learning of all students in my class?

Absolutely! There has been a huge amount of research into the benefits of captions on videos for all students, and this research has found that there are numerous reasons you should be using captions as a default in your classroom.

Captions support students’ reading skills

A single captioned children’s movie can contain 20,000 words - about the same as a children’s chapter book. This is great news for teachers and parents with reluctant readers, as high-interest content is the key to consistent engagement in reading. Studies have also shown that children who watched captioned videos showed improvements in pronunciation of novel words, understanding word definitions and making inferences, and outperformed peers who watched video content without captions. Captions help students to establish important links between the written and spoken word, and increase exposure to content-specific vocabulary. And the benefits for language acquisition and comprehension are even greater for our students learning English as an Additional Language.

Captions retain focus & increase retention

Several studies reference captions as a great way of keeping students’ attention on the content, as their eyes are drawn to the words as they read and listen simultaneously, and they are less likely to become distracted. Educational material is more easily retained and remembered with both visual and auditory aids, too, as multiple parts of the brain are being activated to absorb the information.

Captions reduce stress

There’s nothing worse than being unable to understand a mumbly speaker or a strong accent when you’re trying to take in a lot of new information. This stress compounds if you’re an individual that has difficulty processing speech and audio at a similar rate to your peers. Having captions switched on reduces the stress of missing something important, and once again, provides much-needed support to students with additional needs.

Captions support sound-sensitive environments

This is a big one, especially if you happen to work in an open-plan learning environment or you have certain neurodivergent children in your class. Rather than cranking the sound on your videos and disrupting other classes or, even worse, distressing children in your class that are sound-sensitive, you can switch captions on and be confident that your students will still be able to access the learning material at a lower volume.

What if my students can’t read yet?

Here at Pevan & Sarah, we know our audience - most of you are teachers of students in their first years of school. At the beginning of the year you might be lucky if your students recognise their name in print, and you likely spend most of your literacy blocks for the year focussing on simple sounds and CVC words. So why bother with captions if your students can’t read the majority of them?

As it turns out, you could be boosting your students’ literacy development without even trying by turning captions on.

For pre-readers, captions have multiple benefits. Research has shown that captions cannot be ignored and that children will exhibit automatic reading behaviours while they are displayed on the screen as their eyes are drawn to the words. Captions give students multiple exposures for practicing reading fluency and word exposure, especially if you are watching the same videos regularly, or watching videos with repeated word patterns such as songs and nursery rhymes. And even if children have limited reading skills, it will still improve their ability to match letter-sound relationships with the words and sounds they already know, and boost the amount of practice they receive with reading unknown words and sounds.

Finally, having captions switched on all the time normalises the behaviour, creating a more inclusive classroom environment and students who are accustomed to settings where accessibility is the rule rather than the exception.

How can I implement captions in my classroom?

We’re lucky to be living in an age where captions are prevalent on almost all online video content, so in general it’s just a matter of making sure that the media you want to show your class has captions available. However, it’s advisable to avoid auto-generated captions, as the quality can vary and may not accurately represent the audio content. Watch the video with the captions turned on before using it with your class to make sure the text has been created by humans.

If you’re creating your own video learning materials for your students, it’s never been easier to caption them yourself. There are a variety of free caption generators online to help you create your captions in a few clicks - just make sure you have the ability to edit and fine-tune the text, and don’t forget to include important information such as speaker identification, sound effects and music descriptions.

Google Slides also allows you to present slides with captions - here’s how.

And if you’re looking for more ways to support the deaf or hard of hearing students in your class, be sure to check out Media Access Australia’s Inclusive Teaching Practices for a list of other 'reasonable adjustments' you can make for your students.

Pevan & Sarah videos now have captions!

We’re really excited to announce that we’ve been working on making Pevan & Sarah videos accessible this year. At the time of writing, over 80% of the video content in Cub Club is captioned and includes features such as speaker identification, sound effects and music descriptions. These captions aren’t auto-generated - they have been individually created by the Pevan & Sarah team to ensure accuracy and adherence to captioning protocols. Cub Club subscribers can head to our Videos page to start using our captioned videos now.

Here's how to switch captions on for Cub Club videos.

Note: these instructions are for Chrome web browser users. Settings may look slightly different in Safari, Firefox or other browsers. Get in touch if you're having trouble.

Step 1: Locate the three dots at the bottom right hand corner of the video and click.

Step 2: Click the button titled 'Captions'.

Step 3: Click 'English'.

Step 4: Captions will display at the bottom of the screen as the video plays.

Tip: Did you know you can also adjust the speed of our videos? From the same settings menu, click 'Playback Speed' and choose from the options in the list.

We’ll continue to work hard behind the scenes to caption our entire video library, however if you come across one of our videos that doesn’t currently have captions that you’d like to use with your class, please get in touch and we’ll make it a priority.

Want to learn more? Check out the links below.

• Research into Same-Language Subtitling - Turn on the Subtitles
• Vocabulary Acquisition through Viewing Captioned and Subtitled Video - Reynolds, Cui, Kao & Thomas, 2022
• A Snapshot of Deaf People's Experiences - a Briefing Paper by Deaf Australia
• Captions and Online Video - Australian Disability Clearinghouse on Education and Training
• Turn on the Subtitles to boost kids' literacy - Cheryl Murfin, Seattle's Child
• Caption it Yourself Basic Guidelines - Described and Captioned Media Program (DCMP)
• About Deaf, deaf and hard of hearing - NSW Government Education Department
• Understanding Hearing Loss - Victorian Government Education Department

Do you use captions in your classroom? Would you like to see more posts on our blog about additional ways to support your students? Get in touch via our Contact Page to share your thoughts!

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