Teams (Office 365) – Closed Captions. 

Cost: Free with Office 365 | Platforms: Browser based for Laptop and Desktop and in app form for Android and Apple. 

Office 365 may be free in some Educational Organisations and Workplaces. If so, there is a tool available called ‘Teams’ and this communication tool not only facilitates video camera and text communication but it also has a closed captions feature. Closed captions appear as the speaker talks and written dialogues appears as text on the screen live. 

Most useful for: making all feel included in the call. Some people may prefer closed captions as they may be hard of hearing, deaf or may have English as a second language. 

A key feature: 

• The closed caption feature in Teams and can be found when you are in a Teams meeting. Click on the three dots and select the ‘Turn on Live Captions’ option. Now closed captions will appear along the bottom of the call. 

Our Top Tips:  

• Wearing a headset gives Teams the best opportunity to create the most accurate captions. 
• Calls and meetings can also be recorded (if permissions are granted) and these recordings are saved to STREAM in Office 365. Here closed captions can be either automatically generated or a captioning service can create captions and they can be uploaded to the video. 
• As good as automatic closed captions are, they do not replace a captioning service.

Demo of Closed Captions in Teams in Action (variations may happen as Teams periodically updates): 

Video source: Mike Tholfsen YouTube channel 

Go to the Microsoft Website for more information> 

For more Advice:  

• If you are a student in Higher Education, speak to your Assistive Technology Officer or Disability Officer /Learning Support Officer.  

• If you are a Student in the FET/ETB then it may be possible to speak to an Educational Needs Coordinator, Learning Support Coordinator, Student Access Officer, Student Support Coordinator or a Disability Support Officer for more information about assistive technology.  

• If you are an Employee and are interested in this technology then speak to your Disability Liaison Officer (public service) or your Line Manager to start the conversation. 

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