Otter.ai Accessibility
This page gathers the IT Subcommittee's resources and reviews of the accessibility of Otter.ai. This page will be updated as new information is available or further reviews are conducted.
Accessibility Overview
Otter.ai is one of the most suggested AI transcription tools out there, with a focus on making meetings accessible to the Deaf/Hard of Hearing. Two of the major features is a high quality AI-generated audio transcript, as well as an integrated transcription editing platform that connects the recorded audio to the words in the transcript. This allows for a quick basic transcript to be developed from an audio or video file (or a live transcript integrated into Zoom pro), as well as making it easy to listen repeatedly to the troublesome audio when correcting the transcript. However, in testing, we found that there were major cognitive load issues as well as some basic navigation problems when using keyboard navigation and/or a screen reader. We’ve brought these issues to the attention of Otter.ai, as they may be bugs. Since the initial review of the software, Otter.ai has implemented some fixes to issues we had identified. The updated information is integrated into the page below.
Our testing focused on using the browser-based version of the software. We did not test mobile apps.
Recording a Transcript
Recording a transcript (or uploading an audio/video file) is generally accessible. There is only a visual display that shows the recording is in process. When you start recording with the Record button from the homepage, you are automatically put into an active recording with no audio cues of what happened or where you are (or that it is already recording). Not all the buttons are labeled correctly, and some of the link and button labels are different from what they say visually. There are navigation issues whenever a pop-over window of information appears, as the focus doesn’t automatically switch to the top window. You have to navigate to the bottom of the page in order to access the pop-over window.
The free version of Otter.ai restricts you to an audio length of 40 minutes, which may not be enough to transcribe an entire meeting. It is also restricted to 600 minutes per month, and you can only import 3 audio or video files per account (NOT per month). Paid accounts are required for longer audio support, more minutes, and other options.
Editing a Transcript
There are significant cognitive overload issues when using a screen reader to edit a transcript. We cannot recommend using Otter.ai to edit a transcript using a screen reader.
The AI-engine used to recognize speech is fairly high quality, though it has the expected issues with multiple voices and accents.
Exporting a Transcript
We encountered some difficulties while trying to export a transcript that might have been part of a temporary bug. Right now, you can access the More menu via keyboard and tab between the options in the menu. However, when the pop-over window appears to select how to export the transcript, you must navigate to the bottom of the page to access it.
The free version of Otter.ai only allows you to export the transcript as a txt file. Paid account can copy the transcript to clipboard, export as a .docx Word document, a PDF, or an .SRT. There’s been reports of some difficulties with the timing accuracy on the .srt file when used with YouTube; in those instances it is best to use the YouTube automatic timing.
General Information
- What is the best auto captioning for video calls? Blogpost by Meryl Evans, April 22, 2020
- Otter.ai blogpost on accessibility
- Keyboard shortcuts by Otter.ai (only covers transcript and playback shortcuts)
- Otter.ai Help Center