How to Add Captions to Zoom Meetings
Who can set up live captioning services?
To set up captioning services, you must either be the meeting host or designated as a meeting co-host in the meeting options by the meeting organizer.
Is there something I need to do before I can set up captioning services?
In order for these instructions to work, enable manual captions must be enabled in your Zoom account settings.
- If this is a personal Zoom account, you can find this under Settings -> In Meeting (Advanced) -> Manual captions
- If this is a business Zoom account, the Zoom Account Administrator can find this under Admin -> Account Management -> Account Settings -> In Meeting (Advanced) -> Manual captions
How do I set up live captioning services?
To configure captioning services with Zoom, you need to do the following:
- Schedule a Zoom meeting
- During the creation process, you can define a co-host to assist with this process.
- Join the Zoom meeting
- It is recommended that the host or co-host join the Zoom meeting early (15-20 minutes) to retrieve the API token and coordinate with the captioning team or the captioner directly.
- At the bottom of the meeting window, click on “More” and choose “Captions…”
- The “More” menu will change to reveal more captioning options. Click “Set up manual captioner…”
- Change “Enable manual captioner” to “On”
- If this is not done, Zoom will default to AI generated captions and our captioner’s text will not be seen.
- Click “Copy the API token” to copy the Zoom API token to your clipboard
- If any of the “assign someone to type” options are used, it will override the API token and you may need to click the copy button again to generate a new API token.
- Please note that each time that this button is clicked, a new token is generated. If a host generates the token and the co-host generates a token, the most recent is the active token. Similarly, if the either the host or co-host hit the copy button multiple times, only the most recent copy of the API token will work.
- Please note that Zoom API tokens for captioning expire within 24 hours. Please do not send us a token more than 24 hours before the END TIME of your event.
- Create a new e-mail, paste the API token in the e-mail, and send it to [email protected] and [email protected].
- Please include the event name, date, and time in your e-mail so we can match the API to the correct event.
- When you copy the API token, it will look similar to this:
Once Karasch receives the API token, it will be used to allow the captioner’s text to be streamed in to the Zoom Meeting.
How do I view live captioning services?
Participants who need to view the captioning services may need to enable captions when they join the meeting.
- Join the Zoom meeting
- At the bottom of the meeting window, click on “More” and choose “Captions…”
- The “More” menu will change to reveal more captioning options. Click “Show Captions”
Additionally, we will send you a URL for the captioning. This URL can be supplied to individual participants so that they can view the captioning outside of Zoom if necessary.
Account Setup Steps with Screenshots
If this is a personal Zoom account, you can find this under Settings -> In Meeting (Advanced) -> Manual captions
If this is a business Zoom account, the Zoom Account Administrator can find this under Admin -> Account Management -> Account Settings -> In Meeting (Advanced) -> Manual captions
Meeting Setup Steps with Screenshots
1. Schedule a Zoom meeting
2. Join the Zoom meeting
3. At the bottom of the meeting window, click on “More” and choose “Captions…”
4. The “More” menu will change to reveal more captioning options. Click “Set up manual captioner…”
5. Change “Enable manual captioner” to “On”
6. Click “Copy the API token” to copy the Zoom API token to your clipboard
7. Create a new email, paste the API token in the email, and send it to [email protected] and [email protected].
View Captions with Screenshots
1. Join the Zoom meeting
2. At the bottom of the meeting window, click on “More” and choose “Captions…”
3. The “More” menu will change to reveal more captioning options. Click “Show Captions”
