Add YouTube Video Captions or Transcripts To Your Video
Did you know ...?
... According to the World Health Organisation 5% of the world's population suffers from 'disabling hearing loss'. That's nearly 328 million adults and 32 million children. There are 70 million adults and children who are Deaf (ie born deaf).
Why do I mention these figures?
Well the other day there was a new member of WA who was frustrated that she couldn't access the Getting Started Video because there wasn't a script and there weren't any captions. In fact she couldn't access any of the 11 videos on the Level 1 course. It's not surprising that she was more than a little frustrated particularly internet marketing was something she'd wanted to try for a long time.
There wasn't a quick solution. She asked if anyone could transcribe the videos but that can't be done overnight and although Rick and I have started to do this - it's a slow job.
Now this isn't a dig at Kyle and Carson or the fantastic resources that are available at WA - but as video has become an increasingly popular medium here and across the internet it did make me think how often we may be excluding people when we create video, just by not going that extra mile and adding captions or a transcript.
You don't have to have huge technical skills to be able to add a transcript or captions directly onto your video and YouTube are report that more and more people are adding that service. But if you don't feel able to do that you can always add a separate script which a visitor could download.
Please don't be complacent
If you're someone who already makes videos - please don't make assumptions that you've make good quality video so it's not worth considering. Your video may be fantastic but even if you've spent time perfecting your script and ensuring your microphone is at the right level. Change in pitch and speed of delivery can render sections of the best videos inaccessible to some (and it won't make a difference for a listener just to turn the sound up!)
Benefits to Captions
Apart from the obvious benefits to individuals - meaning they can access videos perhaps for the first time - there's also benefits to be had for the video maker. You can see those in the infographic below.
Videos at WA
If you think it's an important issue here at WA, please don't go sending lots of messages to Kyle or Carson about this. I've already mentioned it and Kyle has promised that they will look at what they can do from this point forward.
Why do I feel so passionate about it? Hey well I just happen to be in that 5%!
You can see a fullsized infographic here
Recent Comments
18
Yes I do understand I lost one of my premium signups due to this and she was very energetic about Internet marketing
Never even thought about YouTube, thanks for bringing this forward. I also want to add that transcripts are valuable to others who learn better from reading and highlighting. I think this is a worthwhile endeavor and thanks for letting me help.
Thanks Rick. I agree that transcripts are useful to lots of people, not just those with hearing loss.
I saw another person who was frustrated about the training only being in video because they had a slow internet connection/bandwidth restrictions(I can't remember which one) and it took forever to download the video/couldn't download the video.
That's another reason to have an alternative form of the training available.
I was adding captions to all my youtube videos. I got lazy though and haven't captioned the last ten or so.
Google has made it really easy to add captions with Youtube. Basically, all you have to do is upload a text file with what was said in the video and they will generate the caption file and sync it with the video automatically. I would say the automatic syncing is correct about 85% of the time, but it is really easy to correct the parts of the caption file that are synced incorrectly.
Thanks Thomas
Nice to hear of someone who has added captions and found it easy. Thanks for your response.
This is great that you guys are doing this. Has anyone thought of doing something like a powerpoint? or would that be too big?
Time consuming to produce- and what many people want is the opportunity to access the videos just like everyone else.
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Very good to consider it. Thanks!
Thanks