Information Technology Services

By: Niki Glick

I recently attended a conference focused on improving accessibility in higher education. One big takeaway for me was that accessibility isn't just about disability; it's about providing as many opportunities as possible for people to learn, often by identifying and reducing possible learning barriers. Captioning is an example of improving accessibility because, not only does it remove the barrier audio-centric content could pose to students with hearing impairments, it can add clarity for students who struggle with note taking or for those whose first language is different than the speaker's. Captioning, which has long been available for recorded videos, is just one part of the accessibility puzzle. But now Microsoft has offered a new application for live captioning your lectures and I wanted to introduce it to you here.

Microsoft Translator is an app for iPhone or Android that turns your speech into text. Instructors can use the app to speak into their phone during lectures while students can use the app on their phone or computer to read everything the instructor is saying. Students can also choose to have the lecture automatically translated to their preferred language. Translator is also available as a computer application (Mac and Windows), but would only work properly if used with a clip-on microphone or headset. For more use cases, to see the tool in action, or to find out how to get started, visit the Microsoft Translator for Education web page.