Almost every week someone asks me: "Is Captional ADA compliant?" It is a fair question, and the honest answer is more useful than a quick yes.
Nobody can certify a product as "ADA compliant", not us and not anyone else. There is no seal and no approved product list. What the law asks for is simpler: if someone who is deaf or hard of hearing comes to your event, they need to be able to follow along as well as everyone else. The ADA calls that effective communication, and how you get there is up to you.
What that looks like in practice
Sign language interpreters, human captioners, captions, and assistive listening systems all count. The right one depends on the person and the event. Someone who signs may need an interpreter. Someone who lost their hearing later in life usually follows captions much better. Either way, the person asking can not be made to pay for it. Places of worship have their own rules, and plenty of churches caption anyway because it is what welcoming people looks like. If your situation is not clear, a short chat with a lawyer is worth it. I am not one, and nothing here is legal advice.
Where Captional fits
For everyday events like a sermon, a lecture, a town hall, or a graduation, live captions on people's own phones close a huge gap, and nobody has to ask for them. Captional runs on the microphone or soundboard you already have, works on any phone, tablet, or computer, and translates into more than 70 languages. Viewers can make the text bigger and pick a font that is easy on their eyes.
The cost gap is real, too. Published rates for a human captioner (CART) commonly land between $125 and $300 an hour, often with a two hour minimum. A hearing loop in a worship space is usually a several thousand dollar installation, and it only helps people whose hearing aids have a telecoil. Captional is $50 a month, or $550 for the year, with no equipment to buy.
It is AI, so it makes mistakes, and our FAQ says so plainly. For a legal hearing, a medical talk, or a safety briefing, book a professional. For everything else, many of our customers run Captional for the whole room and keep a professional on call for specific requests.
A simple checklist for this week
Tell people it exists. Put a slide with a QR code on screen and a poster by the door. Here is how the slide and QR code tool works.
Ask at registration. One line like "Do you need any accommodations?" gives you time to prepare.
Feed it clean audio. A microphone close to the speaker works well, and a direct feed from your soundboard is best. Here is how to connect your soundboard.
Keep a few tablets ready for guests without a smartphone. Any cheap tablet works, and here is a Fire tablet set up for Captional.
Questions we hear a lot
Do we need captions at every single event? Not automatically. The need kicks in when someone asks. But waiting for a request is stressful for everyone, so for events you plan in advance, captions for the whole room are the safer and kinder move.
Can we ask a guest to bring their own interpreter or captioner? No. That responsibility belongs to the host.
Is a hearing loop enough? Loops are great for people with telecoil hearing aids, but plenty of people in your room do not have those. Captions work on the phone they already carry.
Try it in your own room
The easiest way to see whether this works for your people is to try it. Start a free trial, put the QR code on a screen, and read along from your own phone. If you want a hand setting it up, we do that for free. Reach out any time and I will walk you through it.
