What you need to know
- Zoom now supports auto-generated captions on all free Zoom meeting accounts.
- The feature was previously limited to paid accounts.
- Auto-generated captions are currently only available in English, but Zoom plans to expand them to other languages in the future.
Zoom meetings now support auto-generated captions regardless of if someone has a free or paid account. Before this change, people had to have a paid account or use a third-party captioning system for Zoom meetings. Auto-generated captions, also known as live transcriptions, are currently available in English. Zoom will expand the feature to other languages in the future.
"It's important to us that everyone can successfully connect, communicate, and participate using Zoom," says Zoom in its blog post announcing the change. "Without the proper accessibility tools, people with disabilities face tremendous barriers when using video communication solutions."
Auto-generated captions provide speaker subtitles in real-time during Zoom video meetings and webinars.
Zoom already supported AI-powered transcriptions, but the functionality was limited to paid accounts. This led to criticism for making Zoom meetings inaccessible to deaf people.
Shari Eberts equated captions to ramps for people in wheelchairs in a piece for the Washington Post:
Why is Zoom, the most popular video-conferencing company, asking people with hearing loss to pay for the equal access that they need? For those of us with hearing loss, captions are our ramps. But Zoom keeps them out of reach, hidden behind a paywall.
Zoom highlights other accessibility features that it has, including pinning or spotlighting interpreter video, keyboard accessibility, screen reader support, and voicemail transcription. Zoom also supports third-party captioning software and manual captioning.
Zoom is one of the most popular video conferencing platforms around. Now, the app doesn't require a paid account to show auto-generated captions during meetings.
