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Verbit serves as a one-stop-shop for transcription and captioning for universities, colleges and non-profits. They provide seamless integrations and real-time service at competitive pricing that doesn’t compromise on accuracy or speed. They make captions not just an accommodation feature, but a learning and interactive feature that benefits all participants.
Agreement Start: 1 October 2024
Agreement End: 30 September 2027
Purchase of set package
Institutions purchase packages with Verbit and then have 12 months in which to use the credit.
Free trials are available. Please contact Help@chest.ac.uk for further information
Higher and Further Education, Research Councils, Associated Sites, Charities in the United Kingdom and Third Level Institutions in Ireland
This Agreement has been negotiated by Chest in response to a need within the Accessibility community.
Licensor: Verbit Software Ltd, registered in Israel (company number 51-554773), 94 Yigal Alon Street, Tel Aviv, 6789139.
What Verbit offers to institutions and organisations
Verbit partners with universities, colleges and non-profits to help promote access and engagement – from meetings to events and the classroom. Its captioning and transcription offerings are purpose-built to meet the unique and specific demands of your subject matter. More than 3,000 universities, institutions and businesses rely on Verbit’s in-house AI technology and professional human captioners to make their learning environments more accessible.
Verbit’s proprietary captioning technology, Captivate™, provides high-accuracy, cost-efficient transcripts and captions, guaranteed uptimes and customisation. It’s trained using diverse language models, enabling it to understand languages, accents and speech patterns better than generic automatic speech recognition (ASR) engines and can be tailored to fit your unique needs. Watch the video below to learn more:
Why caption your content?
Captions engage professionals and students learning in various environments more effectively, increasing their comprehension of videos, events and content they’re consuming.
The biggest issue around captioning is the time it takes to correct automated captions. It takes around 6 hours to correct one hour of video. Some universities create 1000s of hours of lecture capture a week, striving to meet regulations. Whilst it is possible to claim ‘disproportionate burden’ against correcting captions, this is a temporary solution (can be invoked for around two years, until a solution to an accessibility issue is found) and is justified based on cost.
See this Jisc page for more information on captioning accessibility regulations
Verbit Services
The Verbit Chest Agreement offers Captioning, Transcription, Live Captions and Translation. Click on the below links to find out more about each of them.
Why use Verbit?
Verbit’s solutions provide institutions and organisations with many advantages, including:
How does the agreement with Verbit work?
This Agreement allows institutions in Further Education (FE), Higher Education (HE), and the not-for-profit sector to purchase packages specifically designed for their needs.
Each institution can choose between two types of packages:
Each package offers three levels of access: Basic, Advanced, and Expert. This tiered approach provides flexible pricing to suit the specific needs of each institution.
Detailed pricing information for each access level can be found under the "Products and Pricing" tab in this Agreement.
Q: What file types can be captioned and subtitled?
A: Verbit accepts a variety of file formats, including MP4, MPG, MP3 and more. Learn more on our support site.
Q: What closed caption and subtitle formats are supported?
A: Verbit’s users can export captions and subtitles in a variety of formats, including SRT, VTT, SCC, SAMI and DFXP. Learn more on our support site.
Q: Does Verbit support open and encoded captions?
A: Yes, Verbit supports both options.
Q: Can Verbit provide captions for difficult audio and video?
A: Yes, Verbit’s technology and AI-based solution improves with each use. It accommodates difficult accents, background noise and individual speakers.
Q: Can captions help to boost my SEO rankings?
A: Yes, Verbit’s captioning solution makes all content searchable, which improves its users’ SEO rankings. Closed captions create a text file that search engines can interpret, allowing videos with closed captions to rank significantly higher in search results.
Q: If we were initially planning on syncing via OneDrive but considering migrating to another synching method mid-contract, would that cause any issues?
A: No. Customers can migrate to another integration at any time during their contract.
Institutions worldwide trust Verbit to make their content and experiences more accessible. Our partnerships provide live and recorded video accessibility for all participants, while adapting to every organisation’s need and budget. Read more customer stories online.
“I found Verbit, and it just seemed such a good fit because I was literally just about to send 40 videos manually to somebody to download, and watch, and transcribe, and the process just felt so painful. Verbit was just a simple win.”
“When we first joined with Verbit, we had a large number of events that we’d planned. They helped us to rapidly set those up because from signing a contract to things actually going live, I think was like a week. It was really short notice. The guys I worked with there, they were fabulous.”
"It’s great that Verbit does it in UK English because I think sometimes that’s a challenge with some of the automatic transcriptions, is they’re provided in American English, and being a UK University, UK English is really important to us.”
“We were originally using a service that provided transcriptions and captions with a week-long turnaround, but we were finding ourselves needing to be timelier. We also needed a way to incorporate captioning into Zoom meetings and livestreams. Verbit was the answer to all these needs. Verbit’s platform is user-friendly and easy to navigate.”
“Verbit continues to bridge the accessibility gap within higher education and demonstrates a pivotal commitment to providing equal access to our students, staff and faculty at the University of Pittsburgh. From day one of meeting our customer success manager, Dr. Misty Cobb, she has gone above and beyond with exceptional services!”
Read more of Verbit’s Customer Stories online
Free trials are available. Please contact help@chest.ac.uk for further information
Please visit Verbit’s Support Site
The Licensee is entitled to all updates and new versions that are made generally available to the Supplier’s customers.
Access Verbit’s login page online.
Software as a Solution deliverable over the internet. Preferred browser is Chrome.
Topic: Accessibility Laws and Regulations
What to Know About Digital Accessibility Laws in the UK
Educational organisations must adhere to the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines, a recognised international standard. So what do institutions need to do to meet the requirements set out by the PSBAR? Read more here.
Key Pointers from Two UK University Leaders Getting Accessibility ‘Right’
Two UK university leaders emphasise the importance of understanding legal accessibility regulations, implementing scalable captioning solutions, addressing challenges related to accents and errors, and extending accessibility efforts beyond the classroom to create inclusive student experiences in compliance with the Public Sector Bodies Accessibility Regulations (PSBAR). Read more here.
Topic: Supporting students with disabilities
10 Must-Know Considerations to Assist Learners with ADHD. Verbit considers challenges within academic settings for students with ADHD. With a dropout rate twice the average and only 16% accessing vital support, a notable disparity exists. Individuals with ADHD, however, display a significant propensity for entrepreneurial pursuits. The article offers concise tips for students and educators, emphasising aligning paths with passions and proactive accommodation support. The goal is to foster a more inclusive learning environment for those with ADHD. Read more here.
Why Accessibility is an Essential Piece of the Higher Education Puzzle
As the number of students, staff, and researchers with disabilities grows The Times Higher Education suggests valuable steps, including seeking feedback, avoiding assumptions, and enhancing accessibility in campus events and structures. Read more here.
Topic: Web Accessibility Technologies
Biased Bots: Are You Using AI That Violates the UK Equality Act?
AI's growing role in workplaces and education poses risks of violating the UK Equality Act due to potential biases. From discriminatory Amazon algorithms to robots exhibiting racial biases, AI's reliance on flawed data is concerning. To mitigate these risks, companies must test AI for biases, ensure transparency in AI use. Read more here.
Why You Should be Wary of Using an “Accessibility Checker” Alone.
Recent experimentation with online accessibility checkers revealed significant discrepancies, raising doubts about their reliability in ensuring a fully accessible web environment for individuals with disabilities. These tools, while helpful as a starting point, often present conflicting results and misidentify intentional design elements as accessibility issues. Expert insights emphasise the need for a more comprehensive approach. Read more here.
Technologies Designed for Specific Learning Needs’ Are Helping Everyone
The University of Notre Dame holds a remarkable 93% four-year graduation rate, but the traditional four-year degree format no longer fits the needs of most students. To stay competitive, universities must break away from the conventional mold, adopt flexible learning methods, integrate technology, and prioritise inclusivity through Universal Design for Learning (UDL). Read more here.
Bringing Accessibility & Inclusion to Life in HE and FE Through Captioning
Watch this webinar to learn how Verbit is serving as an effective partner to City, University of London and offering guidance to UK institutions with captioning, transcription and audio description solutions. Learn how to tackle challenges you're likely facing and see a demo of helpful solutions. Watch the on-demand webinar video online.
Organisations of all sizes, colleges, universities, legal firms and government agencies trust Verbit’s captioning technologies. Learn more about Verbit’s Customers online.
Read the case study on City, University of London's partnership with Verbit
Learn more about Verbit’s success story with the Royal College of Art
Licensor: Verbit Software Ltd, registered in Israel (company number 51-554773), 94 Yigal Alon Street, Tel Aviv, 6789139.
The Chest Order, together with the Licence Terms and Conditions, and any exceptions listed below, create a legally binding contract between your institution, organisation or company and the Licensor. Therefore please read the terms and conditions carefully and only submit a Chest Order if its terms and conditions are acceptable to your institution, organisation or company and you have the authority to make the financial commitment shown.
This Site licence is subject to the terms and conditions for the Standard Chest Licence for Software (June 2011), with exceptions listed at the bottom of the page.
Copying of the Software is allowed in accordance with the terms and conditions for the Standard Chest Licence for Software.
Jisc will invoice Licensed Institutions for the initial fee on receipt of a completed order.
Chest is an Enterprise of Jisc. All Purchase orders must be made out to Jisc, 4 Portwall Lane, Bristol, BS1 6NB to cover all charges plus VAT.
All terms contained in a PO are expressly rejected and do not form part of the Licence or vary the Licence terms in any way.
Payments are due within thirty days of invoice date; recipients of late payments are entitled to interest in accordance with UK statutory provisions.
At the end of the Period of Agreement, if there is no new Agreement between QSR and Chest or a new Agreement directly between the Licensed Site and QSR, then Licensed Sites are required to remove all copies of QSR Products from their systems - including personal machines which have been loaded with a copy of the software - at the expiry of their Licence (Commitment) Period.
The product(s) may be used by any Authorised User of the Licensee for Educational Purposes which includes the administration and management of the licensee’s educational and research operations. These permissions are described in the terms and conditions for the Standard Chest Licence for Software.
Amendment to the Standard Chest Software Licence. An additional article 6.2 is added: Notwithstanding anything to the contrary herein, Licensor may in its reasonable discretion institute or modify upon written notice a credit limit for Licensee’s account such that to the extent that unpaid usage accrues on the account in excess of the credit limit, Licensor may suspend availability of the Software to Licensee pending payment of the unpaid accrued usage; and Licensor shall bear no liability to Licensee for such suspension.
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