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Auto-Captioning Videos in YouTube

From Swarthmore Knowledge Base

YouTube has provided a way to auto-create caption files from videos you have uploaded. However, the accuracy of the auto-captions is not 100% reliable, especially for disciplinary terms and other specialized language. Therefore, you need to go to the video manager within your YouTube channel and manually edit the captions. Because of this, we recommend you only use the auto-caption feature for shorter videos.

Instructions for auto-captioning

If you haven’t already, sign in and upload your video to YouTube.

  1. In the top-right corner, click on your user profile and select YouTube Studio from the dropdown menu. This will bring you to your Channel dashboard.
  2. Click on Subtitles from the menu on the left.
  3. Click on the video you wish to edit subtitles on.
  4. In the Video Subtitles tab and under the field Subtitles, select the pencil icon for Details.
  5. Test the captions for accuracy by playing the video and reviewing the text concurrently.
  6. To edit the captioning file, select the line that needs repair in the captioning editor text box.
  7. Use the + symbol to add and remove captions as needed.

Tips for quality captions

A video having captions does not automatically mean the video is accessible. Poor captions can be a barrier to users, and not just for those with hearing impairment (according to studies, "98.6% of [college] students find captions helpful"—3PlayMedia). Keep the following tips in mind to ensure that your video captions are beneficial to all.

  • 99% accuracy is the industry standard, but always aim for 100%. That 1% makes a big difference.
  • Automatic captioning works best when the audio is clear and easy to understand (e.g., background music or certain accents can affect accuracy).
  • Grammar and punctuation matter!
  • Most captions are 1–3 lines of text, are time-synced, and stay on screen for 3–7 seconds.

Additional resources

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