Captions of spoken English are commonplace, but what if you’re watching video of someone signing in American Sign Language (ASL), and you are not fluent in ASL? Or you cannot see the signs? That’s where our ASL-to-English captioning service comes in.
Contrary to popular misconceptions, ASL is not a visual form of English. ASL is its own language with complex linguistic and grammatical rules; simply raising eyebrows can change the entire meaning of a sign. Our fluent bilingual captioners are masters at capturing the true meaning of ASL and making videos accessible for non-native signers and individuals with vision loss who require a text version.
The process of captioning and subtitling ASL videos has special challenges; without any audio to track, automatic translation and timing software does not work. Our team drafts a transcript, which is scrutinized by multiple reviewers to get diverse perspectives and ensure accurate tone and vocabulary. Only then do we begin the task of bringing it to the screen.
We give thoughtful consideration to the timing of captions, line breaks, and their placement on the screen to allow viewers sufficient time to digest the text and quickly associate them with the correct speaker. We also take care to ensure consider color, font, size and background are easy on the eyes and do not obstruct key elements in the video.
