December 5, 2025
Dear Colleagues,
In October, Provost Haggerty provided an update on digital accessibility regarding the new federal rule under Title II of the Americans with Disabilities Act. To work towards meeting these requirements and reinforce our continued commitment to inclusive learning, automated machine-captioning will be turned on by default for all media added to Kaltura, also known as My Media, starting December 18, 2025. Applying captions to videos supports accessibility of digital content for students, faculty, staff, and community members.
If you use or ask students to use video content in your courses, we ask for your attention to the following points about this change.
How does auto-captioning work?
Every video added to Kaltura will automatically create machine-generated captions using Automated Speech Recognition.
What are my responsibilities?
Everyone who creates new or maintains existing digital materials shares responsibility for making them accessible, and this includes ensuring the accuracy of machine-generated video captions. Auto-captioning errors can occur due to a variety of reasons, including the use of technical jargon, different accents and speaking styles, background noise, and other factors. You should plan to review and, if necessary, edit machine-generated captions for accuracy (see “Video Captioning”). If you plan to use content added to Kaltura before December 18th, the video should be captioned to meet digital accessibility requirements. Machine-captioning can be added (see “Video Captioning”). We are exploring options for centralized support to correct errors in auto-captioning in some instructional scenarios. Please stay tuned for additional information.
How might these changes impact the use of Kaltura for students in OSU classes?
If you require students to submit video content, you should alert students to plan for additional processing time ahead of submission deadlines. You may also consider adjusting due dates as needed. Auto-generating machine captions requires processing time, which can vary depending on the volume of videos being captioned.
Who should I contact with questions about machine-captioning in Kaltura?
For classroom-based courses, please email the service desk. Faculty teaching fully online (Ecampus) courses should contact Ecampus faculty support.
Visit OSU’s Digital Accessibility site for additional information about the new rule, resources, and upcoming trainings.
Thank you for helping us create a more inclusive and accessible learning environment.
Alix Gitelman,
Senior Vice Provost for Academic Affairs