Zoom closed captioning is an accessibility option available for those who need it, but it is not as simple as it sounds.
Closed Captioning must be set up by the Host of the meeting before it starts. There will be three options to choose from.
The First is to use Zoom’s integrated 3rd party closed captioning services. Zoom will attempt to listen to what you are saying and generate captions.
The Second and Third are to have the host, or a participant type the captions.
The First option is the most efficient and least effort, but will not perfectly transcribe what you are saying. It all depends on how clearly you are speaking.
Turning on Closed Captioning
We will begin by showing how to turn on closed captioning.
Start by left clicking on your profile picture or initials in the top right corner and scroll down to the cog wheel that says “settings” next to it. If you are on the desktop app it will look like the image below.
These settings are limited so you will need to click “view more settings” at the bottom of the page. This will redirect you to the Zoom settings page in your default browser.
Zoom Settings in the Browser
Scroll down the page until you reach the closed captioning options in the “In Meeting (Advanced)” section. This process only needs to be done once on the account.
Once you are here click on the grey bubble with the white circle in it. When it turns blue you will know it is turned on.
The three check boxes underneath are modifications for the Host, who again needs to enable this in order for any of the participants to access any form of captioning.
The first two checked boxes work in unison to auto generate the captions as stated in the first step above.
The third allows for the transcription to scroll in a chat log panel on the side of the meeting.
Underneath those three boxes is an option for any participant to save the transcript of the meeting to their computers to later review.
Participant Closed Captioning Options (In-Meeting)
In this image we are viewing a meeting in which the host has enabled closed captioning.
The button on the bottom bar titled “live transcript” will offer the closed captioning options. If the host has not enabled captioning and you press the button it will prompt you to request for the host to turn it on, as pictured in the second image below.
Host Closed Captioning Options (In-Meeting)
As the host of the meeting, your screen will look like the image below. The toolbar at the bottom of the screen has meeting controls. The controls related to closed captioning are on the right side of the bar. This is where you can access the Live and Full Transcripts, as well as a few other options.
If anything here remains unclear you can also check out this Zoom Closed Captioning Support Page.
Additionally, If you would like help with this process, just call or email and we’ll be happy to assist you! If you have specific questions, or if our terminology isn’t clear, please use our contact form to send us a message. Thank you!