Zoom: Closed Captions and Transcripts

Overview

All Zoom meetings hosted through a Minnesota State Zoom account will have computer generated captions available for all participants. The host of an online event or meeting may adjust certain settings for saving closed captions and audio transcriptions.

Remember that automated captions are not accurate enough for ADA compliance. Contact Center for Accessibility Resources to request ASL Interpretation or CART Captioning Services for an event. Please submit requests as far in advance as possible (at least 2 weeks) to allow time to arrange services.

Article Sections

• View closed captions on a computer (Windows and Mac)
• View closed captions on a phone or tablet (Android, iOS)
• View and save full transcript
• Meeting Host: Caption and Transcription Settings
• Additional Resources

View closed captions on a computer (Windows and Mac)

1. Join a Zoom meeting from a computer
2. Select the Show Captions button from the meeting controls toolbar at the bottom of your screen
   
   1. If the Show Captions button is not visible, select More, then select Captions, and finally select Show Captions
      
3. If prompted, select the language that will be spoken in the meeting
4. Captions will appear at the bottom center of the Zoom window, click and drag the captions to a new location on the screen if desired

Caption Settings

The caption settings can be adjusted during a meeting or in the Zoom application without joining a meeting. Changes made during a meeting will apply to future meetings you join.

1. Open the Zoom Settings
   1. During a meeting, select the arrow next to Hide (Show) Captions and then select Caption Settings. If you do not have a Hide Captions button, select More, then Captions, then Caption Settings
      
   2. From the Zoom application select your profile in the upper right corner and then select Settings
      
2. This will open a settings window. If necessary select Accessibility from the category list on the left.
   
3. Use the slider to set the font size
4. Select a caption color from the provided options or use the select your own color option to choose a custom color
5. A preview of the caption display is shown below the controls
6. Check the box for Always show captions to have captions enabled any time you join a meeting from this account
7. Close the settings window

Always show captions (Windows or Mac)

In the same accessibility settings menu, check the box for Always show captions to have captions enabled any time you join a meeting from this account.

View closed captions on a mobile device (iOS or Android)

1. Join a Zoom meeting on your mobile device.
2. Select More in the bottom right corner.
3. Select Show Captions

Always show captions (iOS or Android)

Through the Zoom app on iOS and Android devices you can set it to always show closed captioning (when available) so that you do not need to enable captions at the beginning of each meeting.

1. Open the Zoom app on your mobile device.
2. Navigate to Meeting Settings
   • If you are signed in to a Zoom account, tap More in the lower right corner, then tap Meetings.
   • If you are not signed in to Zoom, tap the Settings icon in the upper left corner, then tap Meetings.
3. Scroll down to find Show Closed Captioning (when available) and toggle it on

View and Save Full Transcript

In addition to closed captions during a meeting, you can view a full transcript. Depending on the host’s settings you may be able to save this transcript before the meeting ends.

1. Click on the arrow next to Hide/Show Captions, then click View Full Transcript
   1. If you do not see the Show Captions button on the toolbar you may need to click the More button, then select Captions, then View Full Transcript
2. The transcript will appear in a pane on the right or in a separate window titled Transcript
3. If available, select Save Transcript at the bottom of the transcription pane to save a copy of the transcript to your computer. The saved file will contain the transcription up to the point Save is clicked, so be sure to click Save towards the end of the meeting
   1. To update the saved transcription file click Save Transcript again
      
4. After you have clicked Save Transcript a new Show in Folder button should appear, which you can select to go directly to the file location
5. The file should go to a Zoom folder within Documents on your computer and it can be opened with a text editor like Notepad

Meeting Host: Caption and Transcription Settings

Meeting hosts can configure some caption and transcription settings for their account. All Minnesota State accounts will have automated captions enabled. Note that the transcript is only saved automatically in recorded meetings, for meetings that are not recorded the transcript and captions can only be saved manually by an attendee or host before the meeting ends.

In Meeting Closed Caption and Audio Transcript Settings

As the meeting host you can control whether or not participants can save closed captions and the transcript of a meeting. If the meeting is not being recorded the closed captions and transcript must be saved manually before the meeting ends.

1. Go to minnstate.zoom.us and sign in using your StarID and password
2. Select Settings
   
3. Select the Meetings tab and go to In Meeting (Advanced)
   
4. Scroll to find Save Captions and toggle it to your preferred setting.
   • ON will allow participants to save the closed captions and audio transcript of a meeting, this is the default and recommended setting.
     

Recording Caption and Transcript Settings

For accessibility purposes it is recommended that you allow Zoom to save the audio transcript and closed captions for recorded Zoom meetings.

Note that these settings only apply to Zoom meetings that are being recorded locally or to the cloud. If the meeting is not being recorded a transcript file will not be created unless an attendee or host saves the transcript before the meeting ends.

1. Select the Recording tab at the top.
2. Under Local Recording: check the box for Save closed caption as a VTT file
   
3. Under Advanced Cloud Recording settings: check the boxes for Create audio transcript and Save closed caption as a VTT file
   

Caption Recorded Meetings

Cloud recordings of Zoom meetings will also be uploaded to your MediaSpace account where automatically generated captions will be added. These captions are not accurate enough for ADA compliance. There are a few options to add high quality captions to your recording:

• Edit captions in MediaSpace
• Order captions through MediaSpace
• Caption and Transcription Request

Additional Resources

• Read our main article Zoom Web Conferencing for How To instructions, learning resources and more
• Zoom Managing Manual Captions: information from Zoom on setting up manual captioning for your meeting
• Zoom Managing Automated Captions: information from Zoom on automated captions
• Zoom Accessibility Features