Since I started publishing episodes of Really Specific Stories, I’ve been including full, edited transcripts in my links and show notes. I do this for three important reasons:
- to facilitate easier searching and quoting in my research;
- to offer an alternative way of consuming the podcast, for those who may prefer to read; and
- to ensure that people who are hard of hearing or deaf can still enjoy each interview.
I’ve been pleased with Otter.ai, the transcription service that I use, as it’s fairly accurate and offers an interface for easy editing and correction. (I edit each transcript down to punctuation, in order to represent the timing, pace and emphasis as well as I can.) The exported files are PDFs, which people can view in their browser or download to their computer.
Well after I began the podcast, however, I listened to episode 79 of the Parallel podcast by Shelly Brisbin, titled ‘Story Book’. This podcast is one of my project case studies, and in that episode, Shelly details her experience of writing and updating her book on accessibility for iPhone and iPad, iOS Access for All. It’s a fascinating listen, and Shelly said something that really stood out to me (directly quoting her transcript, starting at 12:54):
The thing that swiped me upside the head the most at one point was when I realized and when people told me that they really wanted a PDF version of the book, which if you insist on making an accessible version of a PDF is easier said than done, and it has taken a lot of struggle and I have actually gotten a lot of mileage on the podcast circuit about complaining about PDFs and how difficult they are to make at least the way I make the books. And then at the end I go, Oh, right, we need to make a PDF, and then you have to generate one that is accessible. And I still hate the format. I think it's terrible and I still do it because people want to read it. Something like 20 to 30% of the people who read my book want to read it in PDF format.
Here I was, offering PDF versions of my episode transcript, having only considered the needs and preferences of people who were hard of hearing or deaf. What about people who live with low vision or blindness? How could I offer a better experience for them, or at least another option?
I decided to offer additional plain-text versions of my transcripts for all episodes, which people can resize easily in their browsers, ask their devices to read for them or copy and paste into whatever text fields or apps they prefer. I’ve been doing this not only for new episodes since that realisation, but have also gone back to amend all existing episodes. In case you haven’t noticed, the links and show notes for every instalment now display the following message:
Read a transcript of the episode as a styled PDF or in plain text.
Too often, accessibility improvements are made well after a product, service or piece of content has been launched, as their makers discover something that has been missing or has been acting as a barrier to entry. That was the case for my show, but I’m pleased to have found a way that I can enhance the experience of Really Specific Stories for people with different abilities, needs and preferences.
If you find anything else that could improve the experience or accessibility of this podcast, please let me know. 🙂
Please note that links to products and services in this article are included as reference material and are not the result of any sponsorship or advertising arrangements.