For any Video Call users and callers who are deaf or hard of hearing, it is challenging to fully participate in online verbal communications. Live captioning provides access to spoken dialogue displayed on a screen and is delivered in real-time. While this functionality is not available within the Video Call platform, you are able to use live captions in Google Chrome on Windows and MacOS machines or a third party web captioning service to provide live captions in your call.
Please click on the desired option below for more details:
Live captions in Google Chrome
You can enable live captions when using healthdirect Video Call using the Google Chrome browser on Windows and MacOS computers. Please see below for how to enable the live captioning. Please note that all caption processing is done on your local desktop not with Google. The CPU load needed is minimal so it works on many devices.
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1. Open the Chrome browser and click on the three dots icon (⋮) in the top right corner. 2. Select Settings |
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| 3. Select Advanced in the left sidebar 4. Then select Accessibility. 5. Enable the toggle switch for Live Caption. Chrome will download the Live Caption code and install it in your browser. |
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| When you begin your next Video Call, the captions will appear as an overlay over your call screen when you are speaking. You can select and drag the overlay to another area if it blocks any buttons, including moving away from the call screen window if you have room on your screen. You can also minimise the captions using the chevron arrow in the captioner overlay to make the caption overlay smaller. Please note: IT departments may block overlays that appear over the top of other applications. If the captions are not showing once enabled then please contact your IT to let them know. |
 In this example, live captions have been dragged to the top right of the call screen (they can be moved anywhere on your screen so they don't block any buttons or your view of other participants. |
| Your patients and clients will also have to enable live captions in their Chrome Browser to see the captions appear. They use the same process outlined above, on their Windows or Mac computer. |
 In this example, live captions have been minimised using the chevron arrow at the bottom of the caption overlay. Minimised captions can also be dragged to another part of your screen, if desired. |
Using a third party web captioning service
There are several web websites offering web captioning services. While in a Video Call you can open a new tab, go to your preferred web captioning website, share your screen or tab into the call, start the captioning service and begin the consultation. The web captioner will add captions as you speak and they will show on the shared screen/tab in the call for all participants to see. This helps make Video Call more accessible to those who cannot clearly hear what you are saying.
Our team has tested one of the free web captioners, Web Captioner, and it works well with Video Call. Please see below for instructions for using Web Captioner with Video Call.
| Go to Web Captioner in a Chrome browser. Other browsers are not currently supported by this application. If you arrive at this page, click on Start Captioning. |
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You will see a black page where your captions will appear, and at the bottom right there is a settings icon. You can set up an account and sign in (still a free service but you will be able to save any changes to settings) or just start using the captioner for free with no account. Have Web Captioner open ready to go and then join the call with your patient/client. You can share the Chrome Tab into the call at any time using Video Call Apps & Tools. |
 
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Click on Start Captioning when you have shared the Chrome tab into your call and Web Captioner will caption live as you speak, using voice recognition. Only your voice will be captioned for the other participant/s to read. If the live captions contain an error you can correct it verbally. The text is large and easy to read. |
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| Click Stop captioning in the web captioner tab when you have finished your consultation. |
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