You probably already know that using video on your blog is an excellent way to increase engagement. But have you ever considered the benefit of transcribing the video? There are SEO benefits for having transcribed videos. However, there are farther reaching goals; in order make your content on the Internet available to people of all capabilities, it is important to make sure that your content, including videos, meet accessibility standards.
Creating Accessible Videos
Ideally, your videos would be produced and published on your blog or platform such as Tumblr with the aim of ensuring that every member of your audience can enjoy their content. An accessible video should include captions, transcription, as well as an audio description and be delivered using a media player designed for accessibility.
Why Transcribe Your Videos?
A transcript is simply the text version of your media content. A good transcript will capture the spoken audio, all on-screen text, and will have written descriptions of any visual content that isn’t understood without seeing the video. A transcript makes your video content available to everyone, including those unable to view the content due to visual impairment, accessibility issues, or technical limitations. Transcriptions are also perfect for when people need to scan or search your video’s content but do not want to watch the complete video.
Closed Captioning Services
Once you have transcribed your video, closed captioning is available as an optional output format. You can also use closed captioning services to transcribe your videos. YouTube offers this as a free service. It is important to know that most of these services utilize voice recognition software and the result may be a sloppy and inaccurate transcript.
Professional Transcription Services
If you don’t have the time to transcribe your content, this is one service that can be outsourced. Professional transcriptions services are available online at prices as low as $1 per minute of audio. Before you agree to the terms, make certain you are contracting a “human transcription” service. This should be done by manually listening to your audios and then typing the content out. Otherwise, you may end up with poor quality, error-riddled copy. It is also beneficial to have various emotions that are evident in the copy transcribed and placed in brackets, to fully convey the tone of your piece.
