How do I add live captions to Blackboard Collaborate sessions?

Blackboard Collaborate does not currently have live captioning built into the core product but it is possible to activate a captioning tool on Google Chrome which will allow you to see captions for any live or recorded Collaborate sessions.

The guide below provides further details on how to activate this feature.

*Google have indicated that captions are processed on the local device and not retained by the company. Although the guide is for Android the support analyst at Google confirmed that it also applies to the Chrome desktop. If there are any further updates then this FAQ will be updated.

Google Chrome Live Captions Instructions

1) Open Google Chrome and paste this link in the address bar: chrome://flags/#enable-accessibility-live-captions
- If you don't use Google Chrome, you can download it for free from: https://www.google.com/intl/en_uk/chrome/ 

2) On the page, the above link takes you to, click the ‘Live Captions’ drop-down menu, then select ‘Enabled’
- A blue box will appear saying ‘Relaunch’
- Click this blue box, the browser will then restart

3) Next, go to Chrome Settings by clicking on the three dots in the top right corner of the Chrome browser, and then selecting ‘Settings’ from the drop-down menu
- Scroll all the way down to bottom and click on ‘Advanced’
- Scroll down again to ‘Accessibility’ then click ‘Live caption’ to enable. This will show on the blue slider

4) Optional: if you click on ‘Captions’, this opens settings in Windows where you can customise how the captions appear e.g. colour, transparency etc.

5) Restart Chrome

6) Open NILE/Collaborate in the Chrome browser 
- Join your Collaborate session in the Chrome browser

• If the captions box is in the way, you can move the caption box to a different place on the screen by clicking and holding on the box then dragging it to where you want it to stay and show the captions.
• Please be aware that the tool can confuse similar sounding words or phrases but will try to correct itself. If using any of the captions as part of assignments, then please check the accuracy first.
• The captions box will not distinguish between different speakers and so you may wish to keep the attendees panel open in Collaborate so that you are able to see who is speaking.