There are numerous reasons to take account of closed captions in addition to transcripts in your video content. Find out more about the top 8 benefits of captioning services and transcription for individuals & businesses from various industries such as legal, academic, and others.
1. Accessibility for hard-of-hearing Viewers and Deaf Viewers
Closed captions were seen originally to offer a similar entertainment experience for hard-of-hearing and deaf people. Therefore, it makes sense that transcription has the greatest benefit. Captions are text that is time-synchronized and added to video content. Transcripts are the simple text description of all captions.
There are more than 360 million people worldwide who suffer from hearing loss. These viewers can access your video content through closed captions, which allows them to consume it. This feature will allow you to increase your audience.
71% of people with disabilities abandon a website when it isn’t accessible.
2. Respecting all Requirements
As many as 60% of Americans with hearing loss are employed or part of an educational program. Several anti-discrimination laws were in place in the United States to protect disabled people’s rights and ensure equal access to resources. Some of these laws require videos to include closed captions when they are published publicly to be fully accessible. However, broadcast television and media standards are strict as regulated by FCC.
Closed captioning requirements can be found in Section 508 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973. They are often extended to Section 504. In addition, many states have “mini 508” laws. Section 508 was updated in January 2017. It now refers to WCAG 2.0 guidelines for accessibility standards. This aspect includes an audio description and captioning requirements.
3. Better Comprehension by the Audience
Video transcription and captioning are common benefits for students in online learning environments. For case in point, a research study was done by Oregon State University. It was found that 52% of students found captions useful as a learning aid to improve comprehension.
It’s cognitive reinforcement. It helps you to remember more when you both read and hear it. Transcripts and captioning add value. Captions were seen to help improve comprehension by 52% of students.
Closed captions can enhance viewers’ experience if they do not speak English. According to the same study by Oregon State University, 66% of students learning English as a second tongue found captions very helpful. Captions allow them to listen and read alongside each other. Captions for helping children learn literacy. Michigan State University found that captions are more beneficial than text. They focus attention and reinforce vocabulary acquisition through multiple modes. Captions also allow learners to decode language chunks, leading to deeper processing.
4. Flexible Viewing in Noise-sensitive Environments
Closed captions allow viewers to view your videos even in areas where audio is not available. For example, captions will relay the speech of someone on a loud train or in a crowd if the sound is obstructed. Likewise, captions allow viewers to enjoy videos muted in quiet places like libraries, offices, and trains.
Social media platforms are now using autoplaying videos to play silently. Digiday reports that 85% percent of Facebook videos don’t contain sound. But, viewers won’t be able to understand what you are saying if there is no sound or captions.
5. Increased Video Views and SEO
This American Life (TAL) showed that transcripts could improve SEO. Although search engines cannot view videos, adding transcripts allows graph charts with increasing lines and icon search engines to crawl all of the audio and video content you have so that it can be properly indexed. Consequently, the number of groups who found TAL via organic search augmented by 6.68%. The transcript pages also led to a 3.89% rise in inbound links. Another study done by Discovery Digital Networks found that YouTube videos with captions received 13.48% more views over the first two weeks and 7.32% more lifetime viewers than videos without captions. In addition, long transcripts can be paginated for specific keywords and optimized to improve search rank further.
6. Video Search Enhanced and Improved User Experience
Transcripts make your video content searchable. Search engines can crawl your content to drive traffic to your website, and viewers can also find the videos they are looking for on your site. An interactive transcription lets users search for keywords in the transcript and see where that keyword appears. Users can merely click on the word to leap to a specific spot in the video. A study conducted by MIT OpenCourseWare found that 97% of students felt interactive transcripts improved their learning experience. In addition, you can search for a particular word in one video and scan your entire video library using playlist search. This seamless user experience improves customer satisfaction and user experience.
7. It is Easier to Create Derivative Content
Market researchers and content creators often use audio or recorded video to create reels, clips, and montages. However, it can be complicated to sift through the content devoid of the flow chart of derivative content help of transcripts. You can scan transcripts and search for key phrases or topics. Direct quotes can also be taken with a simple copy-paste. Transcripts can also be used as the outline for students’ reports or study guides.
8. Suitable Translation into Foreign Languages
The primary step to creating subtitles is getting your video content transcribed. The internet is the heart of today’s globalized world.
YouTube views account for 80% of all YouTube users outside the United States.
Eighteen of the top 10 countries by way of the most YouTube users aren’t English-speaking countries. Therefore, video translation is a necessity. In addition, translations of captions and transcripts can help you reach more people.
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