Spotlight: Live Captioners
Book professionally trained live captioners who are well in advance and check if authors have a preference on who is used. A non-qualified fast typist should not be used to do this, as they are unlikely to be able to offer instant, verbatim captions.
Auto-captions are not a suitable substitute, especially as they are unable to correctly caption certain accents, dialects, names, and particular words. Some auto-caption apps are better than others, but they are often only available in English and there will still be mistakes. Hired captioners will be trained in transcribing accessible captions, and for recordings, hire consultants who use captions during the editing process.
Events should include a captioning screen that participants onstage can see without having to turn around or move from their place at a mic or table.
Provide prep materials to captioners in advance such as writers’ pronouns, spellings of names, places and organisations, and readings which can be shown on a screen so live captioners don’t need to caption these. It also means you can present the extract or poem as written (with particular line breaks and punctuation). Ensure you use a suitable typeface, colours, and contrast. Provide the captioners with core information in advance, such as: names of participants, titles of books and poems, or any potentially unfamiliar terminology you think might crop up.
We advise selecting translators and captioners who have arts and literary experience and reflect the same backgrounds as the participants, if possible. This helps provide a safe space and shared understanding.
If the session is longer, two captioners may be required to ensure that adequate breaks are possible. Encourage guests to talk at a reasonable pace where they can, and to pause while an interpreter or captioner is switching over. This should either be at planned times or requested by the captioners.
Reference: Jeda Pearl, Jamie Hale, Khairani Barokka, Sandra Alland
“I can’t express how frustrating it is to be at an event and see my and my co-guests’ names misspelled in the live captioning. Or to read misgendering, and nonsensical words in place of LGBTQIA+ terminology. It makes it hard for me to follow the conversation. Give basic information to your live captioners in advance, including important vocabulary from featured writers. Don’t use auto-captions, please. And hire captioners who know the communities they’re writing for.”