With technology advancing faster than you can binge your favorite television show, newer services often come with a host of misconceptions and myths. While examination into an accessibility resource is certainly necessary, it’s also important to pull back and look at the entire picture. 

ASR (Automated Speech Recognition, also known as Automated Captioning, Auto Captioning, and AI Captioning) is the means of producing captions using voice recognition software without human intervention. Automated captions began appearing more frequently in the market around 2009. Over the past decade it has evolved, advanced, and looks nothing like its early iterations.

Because ASR has been around for quite some time, there are some common misconceptions floating out there that we would like to help address.

Myth 1: Automated Captioning Products Are Not Accurate

Sometimes we see built-in auto captioning services. For example, we may take notice of frequent bizarre mistakes on social media videos and assume that is the best of automated captioning. If that were the case, we should be rightfully concerned about the quality provided to the deaf and hard of hearing community. However, there is a vast difference between a service thrown into an existing product for free use and a solution like NCI’s CaptionSentry that is built entirely for its intended purpose -- a high quality automated captioning solution designed and curated specifically for broadcasts, classrooms, public speeches, and more. This is what we do, what we excel at, and one of our main focuses. CaptionSentry has excellent word-for-word accuracy (as high as 98%, ranging from 94% to 98% when broadcast audio specifications are met), based on the program, and high comprehensibility. Our highly-skilled Engineering Department works closely with our clients to ensure the audio provided is clear, uncompressed, and of the highest quality for our machines to perform to their strongest capabilities. It’s just as good as (if not better than) anything else available for real-time captioning right now.

What makes NCI a particular standout in the industry is that we are the first traditional provider of real-time closed captioning to offer an ASR captioning solution, positioning NCI as the one of the only companies who can offer hybrid human/ASR services. We can help you identify the best captioning method for your particular program. Some shows are better suited to a human captioner. This includes programs with music or general noise in the background, as well as, different speakers talking over each other. Our clients love that if they need to schedule a program with such limitations, NCI can easily put a human captioner on instead. On the flip side, our clients who prefer human captioners know that there is an ASR captioning option available when and if they need it. What makes this exceptional is that we always have high quality accuracies in mind. Always, full stop.

Myth 2: The Demand for Human Captioners Will Soon Fade

As detailed above, we use a hybrid solution and work human captioners into the workflow of our clients as needed. Many programs will need a human captioner whether because of subject matter, audio quality, type of work (think: sports, multilingual programs), or client preference. NCI is committed to both the development of high quality ASR captioning products AND the careers of our captioners. These two services are not mutually exclusive. Working the departments together, we are able to provide the best opportunities for our clients’ needs.

Automated Captioning is here to stay, and NCI is dedicated to ensuring that wherever there is a need, there is also an affordable, accessibility-friendly, and highly conscientious company (us!) with both the client’s and viewer’s best interest in mind. In a continuous effort to fulfill our mission, we want to make sure someone is doing it properly!

Myth 3: Automated Captioning is Stagnant Once Developed

One of the biggest misconceptions we’ve noticed is the assumption that once the technology/service is developed, we will simply move on to something else. This could not be further from the truth. NCI takes great pride in our continuing technological advancements, our commitment to improving an already stellar service, and our constant quest for THE best captioning quality offered. We have several key development relationships in the industry that not only give us an edge in the technology of ASR, but also afford us a clear advantage in trends, advising, and forecasting needs. We have a senior-level advisory team that meets weekly to discuss ways we can push both ourselves and the ASR technology to better serve the public. We take our commitment to accessibility and our duty to the world earnestly, knowing that our responsibility is substantial.