Auto-Generated Captions Come to Zoom for Government

For U.S. federal, state, and local governments, clear communication is mission-critical. It’s vital these agencies are able to connect with all their constituents, including those who speak a second language or are differently-abled.  

That’s why we’re pleased to announce that our auto-generated captions feature (also known as live transcription) is available for Zoom for Government users. This feature is essential for agencies using Zoom to communicate effectively, as it creates captioning during a Zoom Meeting. 

When enabled by admins and account owners, transcription can work in three different ways: 

• Zoom’s auto-generated captions feature can provide automatic captioning through closed caption settings. 
• A meeting host or someone assigned by the host can manually type captions.
• An integrated third-party closed captioning service can provide captioning.

Meeting participants can privately request that the meeting host enables captioning during the session using the meeting toolbar. Auto-generated captions are currently available in English, with the plan to expand them to other languages in the future.

Auto-generated captions are also available in the commercial Zoom platform for all free and paid Zoom Meetings accounts, as well as Zoom Webinars accounts. 

Zoom for Government delivers an intuitive and secure experience similar to what commercial Zoom users experience, with the only difference being that Zoom for Government is designed to comply with the specific requirements of the U.S. Federal Government. Both versions of the platform are scalable and flexible, giving today’s governmental organizations the technology they need to achieve their goals while still helping to protect important information shared across the platform. 

Zoom for Government has been authorized at the FedRAMP Moderate Level. It has received Provisional Authorization (PA) from the Defense Information Systems Agency (DISA) for the Department of Defense (DoD) at Impact Level 4 (IL4) and an Authorization to Operate (ATO) from the Department of the Air Force for conducting IL4 meetings. Zoom for Government also supports HIPAA, CJIS, and CMMC compliance requirements, and has achieved a StateRAMP Moderate authorization.

Accessibility and inclusivity are top priorities for government users. Whether they’re providing support to the differently-abled community, increasing access to justice, or conveying important information to a diverse audience, today’s agencies can use captioning to connect effectively with the digital public and improve the way they provide services.

To learn more about Zoom for Government, visit our webpage.

Editor’s note: This blog post was edited on Sept. 22, 2022 to include the most up to date information on Zoom for Government.