What is live captioning? It's text of what's being said, shown on screen while it's being said, so people who can't hear the audio well (or can't hear it at all) can follow along. For public agencies, real-time captioning is moving from a nice-to-have to something residents and accessibility rules expect at public meetings.
Live captioning in plain terms
Live captions (also called real-time captions) are created during the event, not afterward. That separates them from captions on a recorded video, which can be prepared and corrected before anyone watches.
Captions are not the same as a transcript. A transcript is the full text, usually read after the meeting. Captions are timed to the audio and shown in short pieces as people speak. Many caption services produce both: captions during the meeting, and a transcript when it ends.
Captions help more people than you might expect: residents who are deaf or hard of hearing, people watching in a noisy lobby or with the sound off, people whose first language isn't English, and anyone trying to catch a name or number they missed.
Two ways captions get made
Human captioners (CART)
CART stands for Communication Access Realtime Translation: a trained stenographer listens and types the captions live. CART must be scheduled for each meeting. If a deaf or hard-of-hearing resident requests CART as an accommodation, the agency should consider that request under the ADA's effective communication rules, which give primary consideration to the person's choice.
Automatic captions
Speech recognition software turns audio into text. With SentraCaptions, captions appear about one second after speech, and the sentence in progress updates live as the software settles on the words. Automatic captions can run at every meeting without scheduling anyone, and the same captions can be translated into other languages. They also make mistakes, which is why every SentraCaptions screen labels captions as automatic and says they may contain errors.
Many agencies use automatic captions as the everyday baseline and arrange CART when a resident requests it. Our machine captions vs. CART article goes deeper.
Why agencies are looking at real-time captioning now
The ADA Title II web rule, issued by DOJ in April 2024, requires state and local government web content and mobile apps to meet WCAG 2.1 Level AA. Two WCAG success criteria matter most for meetings:
- SC 1.2.4 Captions (Live), Level AA: captions for all live audio content in synchronized media, such as a livestreamed meeting.
- SC 1.2.2 Captions (Prerecorded), Level A: captions for prerecorded video, such as meeting recordings you post afterward.
In April 2026, DOJ extended the compliance dates by one year: April 26, 2027 for public entities with a population of 50,000 or more, and April 26, 2028 for smaller entities and special districts. The extension doesn't change the standard, and the ADA's general obligations still apply. The rule also has exceptions, such as certain archived content, so check with your city attorney or county counsel about how it applies to you. See ADA Title II live captions deadlines and WCAG live captions explained.
SB 707, California's Brown Act modernization bill, does not itself require live captions. But captions and live translation are a practical way to support its language-access and participation goals, which start for eligible city councils and boards of supervisors on July 1, 2026.
Where captions appear
- In the room: a chamber screen shows captions full-screen on the TV in the chamber or lobby, with the meeting title, a clock and a QR code.
- On phones: residents scan the QR code and read along at their own text size, in their language, with no app and no sign-in.
- On your stream: captions in one language can be sent to your YouTube Live stream.
- After the meeting: transcripts in every language as TXT or SRT files. SRT files can be used as subtitles on the posted recording.
Captions that are always visible, like the chamber screen, are called open captions. Captions viewers switch on, like YouTube's, are closed captions. See open vs. closed captions.
How to start live captioning your meetings
- Check your audio. Captions are only as good as the sound. Make sure every speaker, including public comment, is on a microphone. See chamber audio tips.
- Connect your encoder. Add SentraCaptions as one more destination on the encoder you already stream with (Pearl, OBS, vMix and others), over RTMP or SRT. No new hardware.
- Add a glossary. List council or board members, streets, neighborhoods and programs so captions spell them right.
- Put up the chamber screen and add the QR code to your agenda.
- Plan pauses. Pause for recess and closed session; while paused nothing is captioned, translated, stored or billed, and screens show “Paused.”
- Keep transcripts. They are not official minutes, but they can help staff prepare minutes.
- Write down how residents request CART or other accommodations.
If your meetings run in CivicCA, captioning starts when the meeting starts and pauses for recess and closed session automatically, and captions show on the CivicCA dais display, public portal and residents' phones.