Panopto and Digital Accessibility

Overview

Panopto is a great site for creating and hosting videos. Learn how to remove digital barriers so your content is accessible to as many people as possible.

Definitions:

  • Closed Captions (CC):  These are the preferred style; they can be Closed (or hidden from the video) often indicated by a small icon labeled CC.
  • Open Captions (OC): these captions are like a late-night restaurant, always Open or always on, sometimes described as "burned in." These captions are often seen in social media where that is the only option for the application.

Note: Content under development

 

Captions

Auto-captioning isn't perfect, but it is a good first step in removing barriers to content.  All videos we provide should have Closed caption as an option. 

  • Enabling ASR captioning at the folder level is free at no additional cost to us
  • It improves basic accessibility support for those who are have or temporary or permanent hearing impairment.
  • It saves time for creating basic captions.

Important: Auto-captioning is only 80-90% accurate and not guaranteed to meet full ADA compliance so it is important to review and correct captioning errors for things such as proper names and medical terminology.  This must be done for each video individually.

 

Transcripts

    Note: Content under development.

    Official Panopto resources

    Related Web Content Accessibility (WCAG) Guidelines

    1.2.1 Audio-only and Video-only (Prerecorded)

    Success Criterion 1.2.1 Audio-only and Video-only (Prerecorded)

    (Level A)

    For prerecorded audio-only and prerecorded video-only media, the following are true, except when the audio or video is a media alternative for text and is clearly labeled as such:

    Prerecorded Audio-only

    An alternative for time-based media is provided that presents equivalent information for prerecorded audio-only content.

    Prerecorded Video-only

    Either an alternative for time-based media or an audio track is provided that presents equivalent information for prerecorded video-only content.


    Questions?

    Last updated: February 26, 2026