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Verbit — AI Live Captioning and Transcription for Disability Accommodation in US Higher Education

United States of America · Tucson · See the United States of America profile

Verbit's AI captioning, used at the University of Arizona and elsewhere, supports US universities' ADA compliance. A national study of 2,000 students found captions aid learning, though many deaf students still prefer human captions.

87 %
Students with a positive response to captions/transcripts (2016 survey)
57.2 %
Students finding captions extremely/very helpful (2016 survey)
~1 letter grade
Grade improvement associated with captioned video
Verbit — AI Live Captioning and Transcription for Disability Accommodation in US Higher Education

Details

Maturity
Established
Promoter
Verbit Inc.
Period
2017–ongoing; University of Arizona deployment; national Oregon State University captioning study, 2016
Keywords
live captioning, AI transcription, ADA compliance, higher-education accessibility

Context

Verbit, founded in 2017, sells AI-generated live captioning, transcription and translation to US colleges and universities through its Campus Complete product, positioned to help institutions meet ADA Title II digital-accessibility requirements. The University of Arizona uses Verbit to caption English and Spanish course video and live lectures for students and faculty with disabilities.

Results

An Oregon State University Ecampus survey of 2,000 students across 15 US institutions found 87% had a positive response to captions or transcripts, with 57.2% finding them extremely or very helpful — most respondents reported no disability, suggesting broad learning value beyond accommodation. A separate study cited by Verbit found students who viewed captioned video scored roughly one full letter grade higher than those who did not. Verbit's own claim of '99% accuracy' is a company figure, not independently audited, and the National Deaf Center reports many deaf students still rate human-generated captions as more reliable than AI captions for high-stakes classroom communication.

Implementation
Indicative cost
Medium (€50k–€500k) — Enterprise SaaS subscription (Campus Complete) sold institution-wide; no public price disclosed, so cost_band (medium) is inferred from its positioning as a campus-wide compliance product.
Time to results
Medium (1–3 years) — Deployed at named institutions atop existing platforms; timeline_band (medium) reflects typical LMS-integration rollout rather than a stated implementation period.
Staffing & skills
Campus disability-services/accessibility offices administer accommodations, IT integrates captioning with Canvas, Blackboard and Zoom

Conditions for success

  • ADA Title II compliance deadline driving institutional adoption
  • Integration into existing LMS/video platforms
  • Bilingual captioning capability (e.g. English/Spanish at University of Arizona)

Common failure modes

  • Vendor-reported '99% accuracy' figure lacks independent audit
  • Many deaf students still prefer human captions for high-stakes classroom communication

Data sources

Where this practice's information was retrieved from, and when.

Attachments

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