In support of digital accessibility and research: automatic captioning and transcripts of video and audio recordings

Due to the holidays, submitted forms will not be processed in the period 20.12.2024-12.01.2025. Hours applied for will be assigned from 13.01.2025 onwards.

Service extended until end of May 2025.
The service can also be used for research work, such as the transcription of interviews.

Captions and transcripts support digital accessibility: they help hard of hearing students understand spoken language content. For some students, in order to follow the course content, it is necessary to comply with the legal requirement which stipulates that teaching learning materials must be accessible. However, other students benefit as well: Textual alternatives, such as closed captioning and accessible transcripts, are practical for anyone who learns in noisy or noise-sensitive environments, who has a poor Internet connection, or, who learns better visually than auditorily. In addition, they help international students whose first language is not the language of the course.

Captions can be generated automatically with free solutions, e.g. via YouTube. However, due to concerns of faculty and data protection, this approach is not recommended. Amberscript provides a GDPR-compliant alternative to assist lecturers in making their digital teaching more accessible.
Funded by the project LInK, the sub-project 'Teaching without Barriers' provides an Amberscript license until the end of May 2024. Amberscript is a browser-based software program that uses speech recognition to convert spoken language into text. Members of the University of Göttingen are thus able to create automatically generated captions and transcripts of their educational video and audio recordings. The service can also be used to make videos for information, counseling services or public relations more accessible.

Handling, quality and languages

After uploading a video file, the program automatically creates a transcript. After reviewing it in the intuitive editor, it can be downloaded or used to generate captions. The captions can also be downloaded as a file. When used for the first time, the program offers video introductions to all functionalities. On the Amberscript website you can also find more information about automatic captioning using Amberscript and about data protection. In the links in the right column, you can find instructions on how to integrate captions into different systems at the University of Göttingen.
The quality of speech recognition is very good compared to other programs; however, like any automated solution, the output is not perfect and varies by language, sound quality, accent, etc., so small errors have to be corrected. Errors can occur especially with compound words, technical terms, and foreign words as well as punctuation. After the transcript has been generated, errors are corrected online in the editor before the file is downloaded or captions are created from it in the next step. The downloaded transcripts are not yet barrier-free. For this reason, please consider our general instructions for creating transcripts or captions along accessibility standards.
The service may be used for material in Dutch, English, French, German, Portuguese, Spanish, Danish, Italian, Norwegian, Finnish and Swedish; translations are not available.

Account types

Single account
This account is suitable if you are working on the project yourself and therefore no staff turnover is to be expected and the work is not taken over by student assistants (SHK).
Group account
With this account, you can invite additional people, inform them about the terms of use and data protection, and assign hours of your quota flexibly to your team members (e.g. colleagues, SHK, substitutes). This account is useful if several people are working on the project or if a regular staff turnover is to be expected (e.g. changing SHK).

Contact form: Creating captions with Amberscript

Please fill out the form below so that we can register you. Subsequently, you will receive an invitation link from Amberscript, with which you can sign up at https://app.amberscript.com/login with a password. We can only assign the requested hours to you after you have logged into the system for the first time. The requested hours are therefore not available to you immediately; however, we will make every effort to assign them promptly.
New form

First and last name *

Institution *

Specification of institution (Institute, Research Group, Department, Centre, etc.)

Your e-mail address of the University of Göttingen *

Required hours (you can request additional hours until the quota expires) *

Account type *

Intended use *

Consent for data processing *

By means of this user agreement, the University of Göttingen may electronically collect and store the data I have provided. This is not a revocable consent, but mandatory data. The data will only be used for the purpose of processing, answering my inquiry and for the internal, statistical evaluation of the program usage.

Consent Terms of Use Amberscript *

I agree to use Amberscript exclusively for the processing of material in the GDPR-compliant processed languages (Dutch, English, French, German, Portuguese, Spanish, Danish, Italian, Norwegian, Finnish and Swedish) and only in accordance with data protection law and other legal requirements as applicable. By using Amberscript, I accept Amberscript's terms and conditions, which can be viewed at https://www.amberscript.com/en/terms-and-conditions/ according to which I, as the person using Amberscript, may not upload files of the following type:

Files that contain another person’s personal information without that person’s written consent.
Files that contain information that encourages conduct that may be deemed a criminal offense.
Files that the user uploads without the right to use those files (e.g. copyrighted material).
Files that are technically harmful to us or services from others.

In addition, by using the service, I confirm compliance with the following restrictions: 1. no video or audio content with special confidentiality requirements may be edited. 2. video or audio content containing sensitive data (for example, but not limited to: health data, data on ethnicity and religion/belief, political opinions, trade union membership, biometric characteristics or sexual orientation, criminal record) may only be edited after consultation with the Deputy University Data Protection Officer Mr. Hallaschka.

By submitting this form, you confirm that you have read and accept the notices under Article 13 of the GDPR.

By submitting this form, you confirm that you have read and accept our Privacy Policy.

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