Publishing Accessible Transcripts on Course Sites: A Checklist

Posting a video on a course page isn't accessible on its own — students using screen readers, those who are deaf or hard of hearing, and non-native speakers all rely on the text version. This is a checklist for publishing that text so it actually helps, not just a box you've checked.

What "accessible" means here

For the broader principles — who benefits, and what good captioning and transcripts look like in general — see making video content inclusive. This piece is specifically about publishing on a course page: what to put where, and in what format.

The checklist

• Publish a real text transcript, not an image or scanned PDF. Screen readers can't parse an image of text. Paste the transcript as actual HTML text on the page, or link to a plain TXT file.
• Sync captions in the video player. Upload an SRT or VTT file to whatever player your course site uses, so captions appear as the video plays — not just as a separate document students have to find.
• Match caption language to content language. If the lecture is in English, the default caption track should be English. Add translated tracks only where you can verify they're accurate — don't rely on machine translation alone for something students will quote from in an exam.
• Keep heading structure and readable formatting. Break a long lecture transcript into paragraphs or sections instead of one unbroken wall of text.
• Offer a downloadable version. Some students use their own assistive reading tools rather than the browser page — a downloadable TXT file lets them bring the content into whatever tool works for them.
• Don't treat auto-generated captions as a finished product. Auto captions are a good starting point, not something to publish unreviewed — see fixing common transcript errors before publishing anything students will rely on.

Test it the way a student actually would

A transcript that looks fine to a sighted reader skimming the page isn't automatically usable by a screen reader. Before publishing, tab through the page using only the keyboard, and if you have access to a screen reader, listen to how it reads the transcript section — does it announce headings correctly, does it read the text in a sensible order, is the downloadable file actually reachable without a mouse? This kind of spot check catches problems a visual review misses entirely.

Where responsibility usually sits

On most course sites, getting captions and transcripts right isn't optional — many institutions have their own accessibility policies tied to broader legal requirements that vary by country and by whether the institution is public or private. This article isn't legal guidance on what your institution is required to do; check with your institution's accessibility or disability services office for the specific standard you need to meet, and treat the checklist above as a practical baseline rather than a compliance guarantee.

Live-streamed lectures

A lecture streamed live and later left up as a regular video follows the same captioning path as any other video once the stream ends — it either has captions YouTube generated during the broadcast, or it doesn't, and the same no-captions limitations apply either way. Treat a recorded livestream the same way you'd treat any other lecture recording for accessibility purposes: check whether it has captions before publishing it as a course resource, and don't assume a live broadcast was captioned in real time just because the replay shows a transcript option.

Make the transcript usable on mobile too

Many students review course material on a phone between classes. A transcript published as plain, properly structured HTML text reflows naturally on a small screen; a PDF or an image doesn't. This is one more reason to publish the transcript as page text rather than a static document, beyond the screen-reader argument alone.

What this doesn't cover

AI transcription for videos that have no captions at all is not available yet on Scriptube — it's coming, not shipped. If a lecture video has no captions, you'll need to caption it some other way before it can go on an accessible course page; see why some videos have no transcript for the reasons a video might be missing captions entirely.

Worked example

Take a recorded lecture at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dQw4w9WgXcQ (a placeholder for your actual course video). You need two things out of it: an SRT file for the embedded player, and a clean TXT transcript for the page text below the video.

How to do it in Scriptube

Dashboard: submit the lecture video, then export it twice — once as SRT for the player, once as TXT for the page. Both exports come from the same processed transcript, so there's no extra cost for pulling a second format.

API: pull the caption file for the player:

curl "https://scriptube.me/api/v1/transcripts/BATCH_ID/export?format=srt" \
  -H "X-API-Key: YOUR_API_KEY" -o lecture.srt

And the plain-text version for the page:

curl "https://scriptube.me/api/v1/transcripts/BATCH_ID/export?format=txt" \
  -H "X-API-Key: YOUR_API_KEY" -o lecture.txt

If your course content is sourced from someone else's video rather than one your institution made, check the rights considerations before downloading and republishing a transcript — personal course notes and republishing someone else's video transcript on a public page are different situations.

Why it's worth doing properly

A transcript that's genuinely usable by assistive technology also tends to help everyone else: students skimming for a specific point, search engines indexing your course page, and anyone reviewing material on a slow connection where video doesn't load reliably.

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