Blog

---

• Captioning

Transcribing Audio Content: Resources and How-To

3Play Media

•

August 11, 2021

Free Ebook: Discover the Benefits of Transcribing Online Video

If you want to transcribe audio content, then you’ve come to the right place. Whether you choose to use a third-party transcription service or DIY (do it yourself), it’s important to weigh the pros and cons and choose which option works best for you.

There are many benefits of transcribing audio to text:

Additionally, many businesses and organizations are legally required to create transcripts for their content based on the Americans with Disabilities Act and Section 504 and 508 of the Rehabilitation Act. WCAG 2.0 is a set of guidelines put in place by the World Wide Web Consortium to make digital content more accessible for users, including those with disabilities. WCAG 2.0 has three levels of compliance: Level A, AA, and AAA. Section 508 was revised to comply with WCAG 2.0 Level A and AA. According to the lowest level, Level A, transcripts are recommended for audio-only content.

We’ll provide the different resources you’ll need to transcribe from an audio file and help you determine the most viable choice based on your budget, time, and particular needs. Good luck, and happy transcribing!

DIY Transcription

Manually transcribing audio can be a daunting task, especially when you have longer forms of content. It usually takes 5-6 times the actual time of the content. Luckily, there are many free and low-cost tools available to simplify the process. Before you begin transcribing, make sure you capture clear and loud audio. This will help to reduce red flags and inaudible sounds in your transcript.

YouTube

If you host your audio content on YouTube, you can utilize the free automatic video transcript tool. This tool automatically transcribes audio into text, but keep in mind that it comes with a lot of errors. Transcripts produced by YouTube’s tool are too inaccurate to be used on their own. Therefore, it’s highly recommended to clean them up since they can hurt your video accessibility and ranking on search engine results pages (SERP).

Here’s how to leverage YouTube’s automatic video transcript:

1. From the video manager, select your video and click Edit > Subtitles and CC. Select Add Subtitles or CC and choose your language.
2. Select Transcribe and Set Timings, and type the transcript in the space provided. YouTube will automatically pause the video as you type so you can transcribe more quickly and accurately.
3. Once you are satisfied, select Set Timings. This will sync your transcript with the video.

Similarly, you can create a transcript beforehand and upload it to YouTube:

1. First, create a transcript with YouTube’s recommendations for formatting.
2. Go to the Video Manager in YouTube and click Edit > Subtitles and CC. Select Add Subtitles or CC and choose your language.
3. Choose Upload a File, select Transcript, and choose your .txt file for upload.
4. Once your transcript has uploaded, click Set Timings to sync your transcript with the video and create closed captions.

You can also download the transcript file later with timings as a caption file:

1. Go to the video from which you would like to download the transcript. Click on the More Actions button (3 horizontal dots). Hint: it’s located next to the share button.
2. Select the Transcript option.
3. A transcript of the closed captions with the time codes will automatically generate.

 Learn about the benefits of transcribing and captioning online video  

ASR Software

Automatic Speech Recognition, otherwise known as ASR, is a technology that picks up human speech and converts it into text. You can upload your media to ASR software, and it will automatically transcribe audio into text. This method still comes with many errors, but it’s much easier and faster to clean up an inaccurate transcript than to start from scratch.

There are many options for transcription software that are free or available for a small cost, such as Express Scribe, EureScribe, and Dragon NaturallySpeaking.

Google Docs

Google offers an awesome feature that allows you to turn Docs into free transcription software. If you don’t have a Gmail account, you can sign up for one free of charge. If you have an existing account, you already have access to a feature called Google Docs; Google Docs is a word processing tool that allows you to create text documents in your web browser. Using voice typing, Google voice transcription can create text transcripts from audio. Like many of the other manual transcription tools, there will be errors, so make sure to clean it up before using it.

Follow these steps to create your transcript:

1. Using any browser of your choice, go to the Google Docs website and Start a New Document.
2. Click on Tools and select Voice Typing. It will enable voice recognition.
3. Click the Microphone icon on the left to activate Voice Typing. Google will transcribe anything being said to the word document.

iOS/Android

Another way to transcribe audio content is by using your smartphone. Similar to Google Docs, the microphone will pick up on audio and transcribe it into text. Transcribing on your smartphone tends to work a little better than Google Docs since the microphone on your phone picks up less background noise; however, it still doesn’t compare to a high-quality microphone. Recording on your smartphone won’t ensure a high accuracy rate, so you will have to clean up the final transcript.

Here are step-by-step instructions for how to transcribe audio into text with your smartphone:

1. Open up a word-processing app on your smartphone.
2. On the keyboard of your smartphone, select the Microphone button, and it will start recording.
3. Hold your phone near your computer or other device and Playback the Video. Your phone will automatically turn the audio into text.

Transcription Services

Another option to transcribe audio content to text is to use a third-party transcription service. If you’re looking for high-quality, accurate transcripts, this is definitely the way to go!

3Play Media offers a 3-step transcription process that uses both technology and human transcriptionists, ensuring a 99.6% accuracy rate. When the audio file consists of difficult content, has background noise, or contains accents, the accuracy rate decreases. ASR typically provides 60-70% accuracy, so the use of human transcriptionists distinguishes 3Play from other transcription options.

Our patented technology uses ASR to automatically produce a rough transcript, which is useful for creating accurate timings even if the words and grammar are incorrect. Using proprietary software, our transcriptionists go through and edit the transcript. All of our transcriptionists undergo a rigorous certification process and have a strong grasp of English grammar, which is important for understanding all the nuances of your content. After the editing process, your file goes through a final review called quality assurance. Your file is reviewed by our top editors, who ensure your transcript is virtually flawless.

One feature we also offer is the 3Play Interactive Transcript. This feature allows users to interact with your video by searching the video, navigating by clicking any word, and reading along with the audio. Interactive transcripts make your content more accessible and improve the user experience.

 Boost your online video with transcripts and captions  

Transcription Best Practices

Now that you have a better understanding of manual transcription versus a transcription service, you can make an informed decision. No matter which option you choose, it’s important to know how to make the most out of your transcripts.

• Grammar and Punctuation: Ensure there are no errors in your transcript so that it is easy to read.
• Speaker Identification:  Use speaker labels to identify who is speaking, especially when there are multiple speakers.
• Non-Speech Sounds:  Communicate non-speech sounds in transcripts. These are typically denoted with [square brackets].
• Verbatim:  Transcribe content as close to verbatim as possible. Leave out filler words such as “um” or “like” unless they’re intentionally included in the audio.

Want to learn more?

This post was originally published by Samantha Sauld on August 30, 2018, and has since been updated.

About the author

3Play Media

The post Transcribing Audio Content: Resources and How-To appeared first on 3Play Media.

Blog

---

• Accessibility

How to Make Orientation Virtual and Accessible

Elisa Lewis

•

August 5, 2020

The beginning of the school semester is an exciting time for both new and returning students. It’s a chance to meet friends, explore clubs and organizations, and take new and interesting courses. 

For students this year, many of these traditionally in-person activities will be held online remotely for the upcoming semester in hopes to limit the spread of Covid-19 on college and university campuses. 

As nerve-racking as it may be to start a new school year online, it’s important that administrators make students feel welcomed and comfortable, even in a virtual environment. 

The good news is that we are living in a digital era and we can use many of the resources currently available to make the orientation process an engaging and accessible experience for all students. 

Discover How to Make Remote Learning Inclusive

Shifting Gears to a Virtual Orientation 

Moving to a virtual environment is easier said than done, however, with the right tools and techniques, faculty can help students feel supported during these challenging times.  

It begs the question, how can we foster the same orientation experience that we would’ve had in person, online? 

In this section, we’ll give you 6 tips on how to make your orientation not only virtual but accessible too. 

Plan Early

First things first, it’s incredibly important to start planning your virtual orientation as early as possible. What you do now will have a great impact later on. The sooner you get started with the planning process, the better off you’ll be. 

Ask yourself some important questions: what tools do students need to be successful? How will you maintain the campus culture online? How will students connect with faculty and other students? How do you make all students feel included? How will you know when students are successfully oriented? These are just some questions to ponder before student orientation.  

It may seem like a daunting process, but you aren’t alone. So many other colleges and universities are in the same boat and there are a plethora of resources available to make the orientation process impactful for all students. 

Additionally, students have higher expectations this time around as opposed to when the pandemic first started. Earlier in the year, it was unexpected and faculty members didn’t have much time to transition to an online environment. This upcoming semester, however, students expect faculty to be prepared to provide an engaging and accessible school experience. 

Invest in Technology

Technology has the ability to bridge connections between people, including students and faculty. That’s why it’s crucial to invest in technology that will keep students engaged and that is accessible. 

Not only do administrators need to figure out what learning management software will be used, but they also need to know what technology will be used for communication. 

We recommend investing in an accessible and interactive video conferencing platform. For example, Zoom is a great tool for virtual environments because it has a lot of engaging features like a chat window, poll questions, screen sharing, Q&A, and remote annotating. 

Not to mention, it’s accessible! It offers automatic transcripts, screen reader support, and keyboard accessibility. It even allows you to add captions (check out 3Play’s integration with Zoom) and record live sessions and post them for viewing at a later date. 

Allow Students to Ask Question and Provide Feedback 

The virtual orientation process is new for all of us so be prepared to listen and adjust down the road. 

Colleges and universities want to create the best possible experience for all of their students and students need to be able to share what’s working well and what needs to be improved. 

Administrators and faculty should be receptive to any feedback students may have about their virtual experience and be open to ways in which they can make it better. 

Additionally, keep the line of communication open for students so that they can always ask questions for clarification. Orientation is a time for students to learn the ins-and-outs of the school, and with everything online now, expect questions! Use software that allows students to ask questions and provide feedback and most importantly, ensure that it’s being followed up. 

Provide Students with Support Services 

A big part of campus life is being involved in all of the social gatherings and support groups that are offered. 

During orientation, let students know all of the services available to them like student life, advising, tutoring, etc. 

Even in a remote environment, these services are still needed. In fact, it can be argued that students need them now more than ever. 

Not only do students need to keep in touch with faculty, but they need to be able to connect with other students. Ensure that students know how to get involved with different clubs and organizations and that each group has the proper tools and resources to successfully and safely engage in a virtual environment.  

Make All Presentations Accessible

Another tip to consider is ensuring that all presentations are accessible – this goes for both the design of the presentation and the presentation itself.

For the design aspect, you’ll want to make sure the images are high contrast (4:5:1), use clear structure with headers, and avoid excessive animation.

On the presentation side, you should use live captions, describe visual elements, give the audience time to read the slides, and repeat audience questions.

Once the presentation is over, be sure to distribute accessible slides and caption and describe the recording.

Prepare Students for Online Learning 

Lastly, students need to be prepared for their online learning experience. Start communicating early on about updates that could affect the upcoming semester. That way, when they get to orientation they’ll already be familiar with the tools they’ll need to adjust. 

Orientation is also a great opportunity for students to learn about navigating learning management systems and other software required for their educational success. New students in particular will need special attention on how to make the best experience possible in a remote environment. 

We all want students to feel well-equipped to excel during the school year so make sure that students have all of the tools and resources they need to feel prepared for online learning. 

 Bringing Equity and Inclusion to Remote Learning with UDL 

How to Make Orientation Accessible 

Now that you’ve learned how to make your orientation virtual, it’s time to focus on ensuring that it’s accessible to all students – including those with disabilities. 

There are over a billion people worldwide with some form of disability. In the online space specifically, technology tends to be inaccessible to people with hearing, vision, or motor loss. When online content isn’t accessible to these groups, it leaves them feeling excluded and unable to fully participate in the orientation experience. 

Not only is making the orientation process accessible the right thing to do, but it’s also the legal thing to do. There are a number of laws in place in the U.S. that protect people with disabilities from discrimination like the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) and the Rehabilitation Act of 1973. 

The ADA is a broad anti-discrimination law that was enacted in order to guarantee equal opportunity for people with disabilities in different sectors of society, including in education. Title III of the ADA protects people in places of public accommodations, like a private college or university. Colleges and universities must provide an equal experience for all students including providing auxiliary aids and services to ensure effective communication. 

The Rehabilitation Act protects people from discrimination in programs conducted by federal agencies, programs that receive federal funding, and more. This includes educational institutions receiving federal funding. Section 508 of the Rehabilitation Act requires that electronic communications and information technologies be accessible to people with disabilities. In addition, many states have adopted Section 508 federal regulations into their own laws called “mini-508s”, and it requires state governments to comply with federal accessibility standards. 

In simple terms, this means providing accessibility tools like captions, audio description, and transcripts to students. Let’s dive into each tool and how they benefit various learners. 

Captions

Closed captions are time-synchronized text of the audio within a video. They assume the viewer cannot hear, therefore they’re a great accommodation for deaf and hard of hearing students. 

With captions, your orientation will be accessible to students with hearing loss, however, captions benefit more people than just those with disabilities. 

A joint study by Oregon State University and 3Play Media found that 71% of students without hearing loss use captions at least some of the time. It goes to show that students, regardless of ability, find captions useful. 

Captions even aid in comprehension, focus, and retention of course material. According to a study conducted by the University of South Florida, St. Petersburg (USFSP), 42% of students use captions to help maintain focus. 

Closed captions are great for pre-recorded content, but what about events happening in real-time? That’s where live captions come in! Live captions are similar to closed captions, except they’re used for live events. 

Whether your orientation is viewed live or pre-recorded make sure you make it accessible by providing closed and/or live captions. 

Audio Description

Audio description is an audio track that narrates the relevant visual information in a video. It assumes the viewer cannot see, therefore, it’s a beneficial accommodation for blind and low vision students. 

Although it’s helpful for students with vision loss, it also helps learners with different learning styles. For example, audio description is great for auditory learners, who retain information best when listening to reinforce what was seen visually. This is especially useful for charts, graphs, and diagrams. 

With audio description, learners are using two senses: visual and auditory to process information. This allows the brain to accommodate more information. That’s why audio description also helps with language development, new media literacy, writing and speaking, and students on the autism spectrum. 

Last, but not least, audio description is great for the student who multitasks. When their eyes are on another device, they’re still able to understand the pertinent visual information. 

Transcripts 

A transcript is a plain text document that narrates the words spoken in a video, however, it’s not time coded. Transcripts are very useful for audio-only content, but interactive transcripts are great for video content. 

An interactive transcript is a time-synchronized transcript that highlights the words as they’re being spoken in a video. It works in tandem with the video to deliver a truly interactive viewing experience. 

Students can type a term in the search bar and see every location where the keyword is spoken within the transcript. By clicking on the keywords, students can jump directly to that point in the video, directing them to the most pertinent part. According to a study by MIT OpenCourseWare, 95% of students were able to find the desired content in a video.  

Similar to captions, interactive transcripts have a slew of benefits like better comprehension and accessibility. USFSP found that 38% of students used interactive transcripts to help with information retention in their survey. 

Are you starting the upcoming semester remotely at your institution? Learn how to make it inclusive for all students in this webinar

About the author

Elisa Lewis

Elisa Lewis is a Senior Marketing Manager at 3Play Media, where she leads content and brand strategy. She is passionate about accessibility, storytelling, and building connections through communication.

The post How to Make Orientation Virtual and Accessible appeared first on 3Play Media.

Blog

---

• Accessibility

How to Publish Online Video

Elisa Lewis

•

June 16, 2020

Online video has completely permeated the online space and continues to be a staple in many people’s digital experience. By 2021, global internet traffic is projected to make up 82% of all consumer internet traffic. 

Whether it be live or prerecorded, the demand for video doesn’t seem to be going away anytime soon. In fact, the popularity of online videos seems to be growing year by year. In 2019 alone, internet users watched 1.1 billion hours of live video and about 70% are watching between 0-4 hours with online video per day.  

That’s a ton a video! With so many videos being consumed daily, it’s important that accessibility is a top priority. When considering how to publish online video, content creators must ensure that it’s accessible to all viewers. Not only does it widen the video’s reach, but it also helps with engagement, SEO, and more. 

If you’re wondering how to publish online video, this post will help you find the best way to make it accessible to all viewers. 

10 Tips for Making Online Video Accessible

Tips on How to Publish Online Video Content

Video is a great way to share your thoughts, skills, and/or product in a visually-appealing and attention-grabbing way. 

When creating a video, it’s important to keep best practices in mind in order to make your content as effective as possible. 

Quality Audio

Although videos are a visual medium, audio quality is just as important as the video quality. 

When recording, you want to ensure that you’re using a quality microphone that easily picks up sound. The internal microphones built in smartphones, cameras, and laptops aren’t that great. However, when you invest in a decent microphone, it really elevates the entire video. 

Factor in SEO

Search engine optimization, or SEO, is all about driving organic search engine traffic to your content. In this case, video SEO is about leading viewers to your video. 

A big factor in SEO is engaging and relevant content, so that should always be the main focus. Search engines prioritize content that’s helpful for searchers, however, there are a few things that you can do to help boost your video’s SEO. 

When uploading your video to a platform, you want to ensure that you include metadata. Video metadata includes titles, tags, descriptions, captions, transcripts, thumbnails, etc. 

When a video is first indexed, search engines only have the metadata to determine the topic and value of the video. Soon after though, search engines are good at detecting videos that actually provide value – so optimize your video for humans instead of robots. 

Invest in Video Accessibility

Video accessibility is all about making your content viewable by everyone – including people with disabilities. 

There are several video tools that help achieve video accessibility including, closed and live captioning, audio description, and transcription. 

When you invest in accessibility, you make your content viewable to all audiences. We’ll dive more into the elements of accessible online video in the next section. 

Include a Call to Action 

A call to action, otherwise known as a CTA, is the desired action you want your viewers to take. Whether it’s sending them to your website or having them sign up for a newsletter, it’s important to give viewers the next steps once they’ve finished watching your video. 

The reason why CTA’s are important is that you want to keep your audience interested in your brand and other content you will create in the future. 

Keep Your Videos Short

Unless you’re producing episodic long-term content, it’s best to keep your videos short, sweet, and to the point. Nowadays, with so much content being produced, it’s hard to keep viewers’ attention. 

According to a study by Microsoft, the average human being has an attention span of eight seconds! Most people don’t have the patience to sit through a long video, so be sure to deliver your message in an efficient way. 

Here are some tips you can keep in mind when recording your video:

• Get to your point as soon as possible
• Inspire emotion 
• Be authentic 
• Avoid coming off too “sales-y”

 Video Accessibility Best Practices  

Elements of Accessible Online Video

Closed Captioning

Closed captions are time-synchronized text that can be read while watching a video. They’re usually noted with a CC icon, and they originated as an FCC mandate for broadcast in the1980s. Captions assume that the viewer can’t hear, so they convey all relevant sound effects, speaker identification, and other non-speech elements. 

They make video accessible to deaf and hard of hearing viewers by providing a text-based and time-synchronized alternative to the audio. 

Live Captioning

Live captioning is a little different than closed captioning, which is typically used for prerecorded video. Live captioning is for videos happening in real-time. 

Live captions ensure that all of your live video streams are accessible to the deaf or hard-of-hearing community as well as make your content more engaging.

Live captions are created in various ways. The two main options would be through automatic speech recognition technology or by a human stenographer. There might be a slight delay in live captioning as ASR technology is processing the words being spoken or the stenographer is typing. It all depends on the platform.

Live captions and closed captions are a great accommodation for the deaf and hard of hearing, however, what about blind and low vision viewers? 

Audio Description 

Audio description is an audio track that narrates the relevant visual information in an online video. 

It assumes the viewer cannot see. Therefore, it’s used as an accommodation for blind and low vision viewers. 

With audio description, a human or synthesized voice describes the key elements like character movements, facial expressions, and other key visual information essential to understanding the plot of the video.

Interactive Transcript

An interactive transcript is a time-synchronized transcript that allows a user to search across the spoken audio of a video and play from any point in the video by clicking within the transcript. The interactive transcript is hooked up to the video player and works to provide an interactive experience for the viewer. 

With an interactive transcript, you can simply search for a keyword in the search bar to see every instance of where the keyword is spoken within the transcript. By clicking on the keyword, the viewer can jump directly to that point in the video where the keyword is spoken. This is especially helpful when you want to navigate to more pertinent parts of the video.

Accessible Video Player

Finally, you want to ensure that you use an accessible video player. That means that all the tools we’ve mentioned above should be supported by the video player (i.e. captions, audio description, etc.). 

In addition, a video player must be screen reader and keyboard accessible, doesn’t start playing the video automatically, unless there’s a mechanism to pause or stop the video, and uses proper color contrast in video player controls.  

Make Your Online Videos Accessible!

Legal Requirements for Online Video

The first major accessibility law in the US is the Rehabilitation Act of 1973. There are two sections of the law that apply to online video content. Section 504 is a broad anti-discrimination law that requires equal access for individuals with disabilities. This applies to federal and federally-funded programs. Section 508 requires federal communications and information technology to be accessible. This applies to federal programs, but it’s often applied to federally funded programs through state and organization laws.

The second major accessibility law is the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) of 1990. Title II and Title III apply to online video. Title II impacts public entities, while Title III impacts places of public accommodations. 

One major question around the ADA is, what constitutes a place of public accommodation? The ADA was written in 1990 before the internet was anywhere near as popular as it is today. So when Title III was written, it was originally intended for physical entities like wheelchair ramps on a building. But now, it’s being extended more and more to the online sector.

A couple of major lawsuits with captioning have noted Title III of the ADA. Netflix was sued by the National Association of the Deaf (NAD) in 2012 for failing to provide closed captions for most of its watch instantly movies. This was the first time that Title III of the ADA was applied to an internet-only business.

The court ruled in favor of the NAD and Netflix settled, agreeing to caption 100% of its streaming content, which set a profound precedent for online video. 

The final major accessibility law in the US is the 21st Century Communications and Video Accessibility Act, or CVAA. For captions, the CVAA impacts online videos that previously appeared on television with captions. So any clips, montages, or full-length video content that are featured on a major broadcaster’s website has to be captioned under the CVAA. 

Audio description has slightly different requirements. As of 2020, the tip 60 TV markets are required to describe 100% of programs that have appeared on television. 

The Benefits of Accessible Online Video

There’s a massive amount of video content uploaded onto the web every second. When you make your video accessible, you broaden the number of people able to view and engage with your content. 

The first benefit of accessible video is accessibility. There are a little less than 1 billion people worldwide with some form of vision, hearing, or motor disability. Without video accessibility, a large segment of the population would not be able to enjoy online video. 

71% of people with disabilities leave a website immediately if it’s inaccessible. That means that when content creators don’t prioritize accessibility, they’re limiting their reach. 

Accessible online video also helps with user engagement and experience. Studies show that 80% of viewers who use closed captions are not deaf or hard of hearing. Captions are loved by many – not just viewers with disabilities. 

Additionally, accessibility gives viewers flexibility. Captions and transcripts are helpful when sound isn’t available or if there’s no access to the use of headphones. Viewers can still understand the critical auditory information no matter if they’re in a noisy or quiet environment. With audio description, on the other hand, it’s helpful when you can’t focus your full attention on the screen. Viewers could be occupied with another visual task, while still understanding the important visual information. 

The benefits of accessible online video are endless! 

About the author

Elisa Lewis

Elisa Lewis is a Senior Marketing Manager at 3Play Media, where she leads content and brand strategy. She is passionate about accessibility, storytelling, and building connections through communication.

The post How to Publish Online Video appeared first on 3Play Media.