Captioning Services

The South Carolina Department of Education is requesting bids for human-captioned services for recorded webinars, trainings, and promotional videos serving approximately 750,000 students and 60,000 educators across over 1,200 schools, with proposals due July 6, 2026 at 11:00 a.m. EST and a question deadline of June 25, 2026. South Carolina resident vendor preferences and resident subcontractor preferences apply if claimed and qualified.

The scope encompasses human captioning only — artificial intelligence and computer-assisted captioning are prohibited — across multiple digital formats (MOV, WMV, M4V, AVI, FLV, MPEG-2, MPEG-4). The vendor must deliver captions in English, Spanish, French, German, ASL, and hybrid language combinations with 99% accuracy; complete captions within 48 hours of transmission; provide searchable transcripts and metadata extraction; ensure ADA/508/CVAA compliance; and offer live captioning services. The vendor must accept file transfer via secure sites and common platforms including Dropbox and Google Drive and provide monthly usage reports and invoice capabilities to individual SCDE offices.

The estimated quantity is 12,000 minutes per year, with pricing quoted as a dollar amount per human-captioned minute across five annual line items. The contract term runs from July 21, 2026 through July 20, 2031, with automatic annual renewal for one-year periods unless the state provides thirty days' notice of non-renewal. Place of performance is the SC Department of Education's office in West Columbia, South Carolina. Award notification is scheduled for July 9, 2026. This is a competitive sealed bid evaluated on lowest responsible and responsive bidder.