Captioning
Rochester Institute of Technology is committed to web accessibility for all, both in person and online.
Professional captions are only available for media stored in RIT's Panopto video platform.
It is vital that instructors select and/or provide accessible media for their courses. These materials should be developed at the time a course is designed, since it may not be known if students who require accommodations will be enrolled in the course until the add/drop period has passed.
A week is the typical length of time needed to provide professional captioning. However, two weeks of lead time is appreciated when possible. We encourage faculty to request captioning prior to the start of the term; this allows for adding time should captions need to be edited for improved accuracy. However, we will do our best to help you get the captions you need, regardless of lead-time.
Found Media
RIT has created an official stance regarding Copyright, Fair Use, the TEACH Act and other accessibility laws and considerations.
Review the RIT Copyright Policy that addresses the use of all media at RIT.
Media Services does not have the legal expertise to advise faculty on the RIT Copyright Policy.
Contact the RIT Office of Legal Affairs with questions about the policy,
If you are interested in using a captioned film from the RIT Libraries collection:
Consult with your Librarian to see if your title is available.
(RIT Libraries will no longer license streaming media, effective Jan 1, 2026).
For other media types that adhere to the guidance of the RIT Copyright Policy, CTL Media Services can request professional captioning for English language media from a variety of formats and host it on our streaming server (Panopto) for use in myCourses.
Use the Course Media Captioning Request Form to initiate a captioning / transcription request.
Once captioned, you will be notified by email with additional instructions for inserting the media in your course.
Student-created Media
Due to the quicker turnaround time needed for student work, it is generally most appropriate for students to create their own captions from scratch or edit automatically-generated captions.
In Panopto (for assignments or for use in myCourses discussions)
Enable automatic speech recognition (ASR) generated captions and edit them Manually type captions on Panopto Videos.
In Zoom
Edit the automatic captioning on the Zoom recording.
(There is not a way to create captions from scratch in Zoom.)
Non-course Related Media
To request captioning for pre-recorded non-course related content
Contact RIT Marketing and Communications.
To request live captioning for in-person or Zoom meetings
Contact the Department of Access Services (DAS).