Should you include captions and transcripts in your videos? Without captions and transcripts, most people, like those with hearing problems, will struggle to learn with equity. Transcription and online captioning allow them to follow along with the video or audio they want to consume during their free time. Here are the benefits of captioning and transcribing.
Accessibility of hard of hearing or deaf viewers
Originally, closed captions were created to offer an equal TV viewing experience for hard of hearing or deaf individuals. Time synced texts are the ideal substitute for audio for these viewers. Closed captions let hard of hearing and deaf people consume your visual content, which widens your audience and showcases a determination to digital inclusion.
Protection against cases of disability discrimination
Anti-discrimination laws are in place to safeguard the rights of individuals with disabilities to access the same services as other people. Most of these laws necessitate that videos have closed captions to be completely accessible.
Closed captioning set standards for multimedia in the USA are sternly regulated by the CVAA and FCC. The standards were passed in 2010, and they required that media firms caption online videos.
Improved comprehension
Closed captions will drastically improve the experience of viewers who are not native English speakers. Georgia Tech discovered that captions assed their numerous ESL learners better comprehend videos. Because they can read as they listen. This enhances comprehension, allows listeners to learn new vocabulary, and reinforces proper spelling.
To find out how adding closed captions and transcripts to multimedia content was affecting the learner body, the University of Wisconsin-extension surveyed their learners. They discovered that 50 percent used the downloaded transcripts as a learning aid. The learners loved that they could print the content, read along with the video, and highlight essential sections.
Captions assist viewers with autism, learning disabilities, and attention to deficit to focus and absorb the speech easily.
Viewability in sound-sensitive surroundings
With closed captions, viewers will watch the visual content in areas where audio is inaccessible. This is especially vital as video games expand, and the viewers will want to watch the content on the go.
If a person is in a crowded street or noisy train, captions will pass the message whenever sound is masked. Additionally, captions let viewers watch videos on mute in those quiet environments like an office or library.
Improved SEO and video views
Research by radio show duped as This American Life (TAL) revealed that incorporating transcripts improves SEO for sites that provide audio or video content. The number of people who learned about TAL via organic search results increased by 6.68 percent. They also witnessed a 3.89 percent increase inbound links attributed to the transcript pages. That is because transcripts let search engines scuttle the full text of the files such that they can be well indexed. Google cannot watch the videos, but it reads the transcripts and know what they entail.
Video search and user experience
Transcripts will make your videos vastly more searchable. While search engines will crawl your transcripts and drive insane traffic to your website, users will easily find videos they want. They can search for a specific keyword within a video or scan the entire video library for the keyword using the most interactive transcript. You can easily convert videos into text using a transcript converter.
Another effective way to enhance user experience is to include interactive transcripts. Interactive transcripts encourage active engagement with videos as they play, making it easier for the viewers to read along, skip ahead or go to the particular point in that video.
Derivative content
Content creators and market researchers rely on recorded audio and videos to make reels, montages, and clips. However, sifting through this content without the help of transcripts can be a challenge.
Transcripts are effortlessly scanned and searched for keywords or topics. A tool such as Clipmaker allows you to create video clip reels using transcripts. Podcasts can make blog posts using transcripts to drive traffic to the website through search.
Translation to foreign languages
Video transcripts are the first stage of making subtitles in a foreign language. With 80 percent of YouTube viewers originating outside the USA and 67.5 percent of views originating from non-English speaking nations, video translation is in high demand. Providing subtitles in different languages widens your appeal to the global audience.
Online captioning and translated transcripts can boost SEO for searches conducted in other countries.