Devices Offering Great Solutions (DOGS)

Captioning Software

July 1, 2021 / Stacy Phillips / No Comments

Change speech into written words.

What does it do?

Captioning software turns speech into written words that print across your phone or computer screen. This is a useful tool for people who are Deaf or Hard of Hearing, or in case you missed something that was said.

If you are in charge of arranging captions for a live event, you should consider hiring an experienced professional called a CART (Communication Access Realtime Translation) writer. This is more accurate than automated software. For other situations, many software options are available to help!

What kinds of captioning tools are there?

  • Innocaption – is a free captioning service for the deaf and hard of hearing funded by the FCC. It provides real-time captioning on your mobile device.
  • Verbit.ai – Closed captioning and transcription solutions for live and recorded videos. Uses both artificial intelligence and human professional transcribers to provide the highest accuracy.
  • Otter.ai – Speech-to-text transcription with speaker identification. Integrates with Zoom and Google Meet for virtual meetings.

Related Apps

  • Ava – Real-time captioning for live spoken conversations. Also supports multi-person written communication and offers text-to-speech capability.
    • The free plan allows 5 hours of conversation a month. Try it out and if you need more, a premium subscription is $29.99 per month.
  • App MyEar – Speech-to-text app with a flat rate cost ($9.99).
  • Live Transcribe – Free Android captioning app that transcribes multiple languages.
  • Just Press Record – This app records speech, then transcribes it. Supports multiple languages, at a flat rate cost ($4.99).
Speech bubble inside an orange circle

How do I see what's new?

Technology changes all the time. To find out about the latest options for these, you can type keywords into a search engine such as Google, Safari, Firefox, or Bing on a computer or tablet. These are the keywords for this type of item:

captioning software, speech to text, communication apps for the Deaf

How do I find out more?

If you live in the US outside of Pennsylvania you would need to find your state's AT program.

If you live in Pennsylvania:

  • you could contact TechOWL to work with a specialist. We can meet with you and sometimes demonstrate this equipment. We can also help with different ways to get one for your own.
  • you might borrow this equipment to try out. Do we have this in our lending library?

Yes

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Stacy Phillips

Stacy Phillips is the Project Coordinator of Assistive Technology Programs for the Institute on Disabilities at Temple University. Her responsibilities include coordinating assessments for adults with intellectual disabilities who are deaf under the "Harry M" waiver, Outreach Coordination for the National DeafBlind Equipment Distribution Program known as iCanConnectPA, and conducting assistive technology device demonstrations for individuals who are Deaf or Hard of Hearing. Stacy is also the Co-Chair of the Pennsylvania DeafBlind Advisory Committee.

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