How captions increase ROI and audience for media creators | Svetlana Kouznetsova | TEDxFultonStreet
-
0:06 - 0:09Interpreter: If you create
video and audio content -
0:09 - 0:10or host events,
-
0:10 - 0:13there are two reasons
to care about providing -
0:13 - 0:16high quality, same language
captioning and transcription. -
0:16 - 0:18The first is obvious,
-
0:18 - 0:21that there are millions
of people like myself, -
0:21 - 0:23who get accessibility through captions.
-
0:23 - 0:24But another reason
-
0:24 - 0:27is that you will reach
a much larger audience -
0:27 - 0:29and increase your return
on investment. -
0:29 - 0:3380% of people who use
captions are not deaf. -
0:33 - 0:36Captions help foreign language learners,
-
0:36 - 0:40people in gyms, or bars,
or sound sensitive environments, -
0:40 - 0:44and assist when the speaker
has a strong accent, -
0:44 - 0:48or when content is complicated
and difficult to understand. -
0:48 - 0:52Captions increase
the viewership by 40%. -
0:52 - 0:5590% of videos with captions
are watched to completion. -
0:55 - 0:56Digiday states that
-
0:56 - 1:0085% of Facebook videos
are viewed in mute mode, -
1:00 - 1:03so captioning has become a necessity.
-
1:03 - 1:05Growing up,
I didn't have captioning access -
1:05 - 1:07until I was in eighth grade.
-
1:07 - 1:09That's when my dad brought home a box
-
1:09 - 1:11called a captioning decoder.
-
1:11 - 1:14We were amazed by this magic box
-
1:14 - 1:17that made captions show up
on almost all the TV channels. -
1:17 - 1:21Now captioning support
is included in all TV models -
1:21 - 1:23and video players,
-
1:23 - 1:25and there's no need
for external decoders anymore. -
1:25 - 1:29Captions are now not limited
even to TV and videos, -
1:29 - 1:32they can also be provided
in real-time -
1:32 - 1:35for breaking news, webinars, events,
-
1:35 - 1:38classes, work meetings, and so on.
-
1:38 - 1:41Once I was given access
to captioned material, -
1:41 - 1:42my life completely changed
-
1:42 - 1:45and new worlds opened up for me.
-
1:45 - 1:46But I'm not alone.
-
1:46 - 1:49There are over 48 million
deaf and hard of hearing people -
1:49 - 1:51in United States.
-
1:51 - 1:55And over 466 million worldwide.
-
1:55 - 1:57The number is increasing
rapidly as well, -
1:57 - 2:00especially because the number
one cause of hearing loss now -
2:00 - 2:03is constant exposure to loud noises.
-
2:05 - 2:09Captions also helped me master
English as my third language. -
2:09 - 2:12Even my parents,
who have perfect hearing, -
2:12 - 2:16love captions because English
is not their native language. -
2:18 - 2:20Quality is critical
-
2:20 - 2:23when you're considering captions.
-
2:23 - 2:26While there are now
many speech technologies -
2:26 - 2:28that can translate automatically
-
2:28 - 2:29spoken words into captions,
-
2:29 - 2:32they're often not accurate.
-
2:32 - 2:35Many deaf people call them
"craptions". -
2:35 - 2:35(Laughter)
-
2:35 - 2:37Under ideal conditions,
-
2:37 - 2:41the accuracy rate is usually
somewhere between 80 and 90%. -
2:41 - 2:44And it gets even worse
with complex content, -
2:44 - 2:46or accents, background noise,
-
2:46 - 2:48when speakers are speaking too fast,
-
2:48 - 2:50or overlap each other.
-
2:50 - 2:52And bad captions
are not better than nothing. -
2:52 - 2:55Garbled captions are hard to read.
-
2:55 - 2:58And it's just like
listening to garbled audio. -
2:58 - 3:01Caption errors make it hard to understand
-
3:01 - 3:03or retain any information.
-
3:03 - 3:08Poor captions affect your SEO,
search engine optimization, -
3:08 - 3:11and decrease your CPM,
your clicks per mille, -
3:11 - 3:15for videos and your ROI,
return on investment. -
3:16 - 3:18Google is deaf like me
-
3:18 - 3:21and doesn't like videos
with auto-captioning, -
3:21 - 3:24so it just does not index
those videos. -
3:24 - 3:26So Google penalizes producers
-
3:26 - 3:28for turning on the auto-captions
-
3:28 - 3:31instead of actually adding
proper captioning themselves. -
3:32 - 3:35Even if a machine could translate
-
3:35 - 3:37every spoken word
to captions accurately, -
3:37 - 3:40it still cannot follow
certain quality guidelines. -
3:40 - 3:43For example, you may see
text exactly as it's heard, -
3:43 - 3:45for example this:
-
3:46 - 3:48Lets eat grandma.
-
3:49 - 3:50(Laughter)
-
3:50 - 3:52Now, does that mean
that we should go ahead -
3:52 - 3:54and consume grandma,
-
3:54 - 3:56or that we should dine with her?
-
3:56 - 3:57It's not clear, right?
-
3:57 - 3:59Now that's much better.
-
3:59 - 4:00(Laughter)
-
4:00 - 4:03So proper grammar
and punctuation are critical -
4:03 - 4:06for optimal experience
in reading captions. -
4:06 - 4:08Just like speech intonations are.
-
4:08 - 4:11Quality guidelines are long and complex,
-
4:11 - 4:14so I'm just sharing a few
basic tips with you today. -
4:14 - 4:17Transcripts and captions
need to be verbatim -
4:17 - 4:19They need to follow
proper grammatical rules, -
4:19 - 4:21include non-speech elements,
-
4:21 - 4:24use upper and lower case letters,
-
4:24 - 4:27have good font size and color contrast,
-
4:27 - 4:29and translate profanity --
-
4:29 - 4:30word for word,
-
4:30 - 4:32assuming it's not bleeped out
in the audio. -
4:35 - 4:39Captions and transcripts
need to be completed -
4:39 - 4:42before you publish
or share videos and podcasts. -
4:44 - 4:47So everyone can enjoy them
at the same time. -
4:47 - 4:48And if you advertise in advance
-
4:48 - 4:51that events will have real-time captions,
-
4:51 - 4:52you will get a larger audience.
-
4:54 - 4:56With advances in technologies,
-
4:56 - 4:58it is much easier, faster,and cheaper
-
4:58 - 5:02to create captions now
more than ever before. -
5:02 - 5:05For example,
YouTube offers a great free tool -
5:05 - 5:07to create and edit captions.
-
5:07 - 5:11You can save and download
your captions as an SRT caption file -
5:11 - 5:15and import it onto Vimeo, Facebook,
-
5:15 - 5:16or other video platforms
-
5:16 - 5:19that offer captioning support.
-
5:19 - 5:21Here's a short example.
-
5:21 - 5:23So you can see how easy it is.
-
5:25 - 5:27Yes, it's really easy.
-
5:28 - 5:31And you can clean up
the auto captions if you like, -
5:31 - 5:32or you can create them from scratch.
-
5:32 - 5:35Just please do not turn on
auto captions -
5:35 - 5:37and just leave them as is.
-
5:37 - 5:39And please add video captions
-
5:39 - 5:41on all platforms that you use,
-
5:41 - 5:45and couple those captions
with transcripts for videos, -
5:45 - 5:49because those are useful
for people who cannot see the video -
5:49 - 5:51or that want to skim the information.
-
5:52 - 5:54If your organization can do so,
-
5:54 - 5:56consider hiring an experienced specialist
-
5:56 - 6:00who is familiar with quality
standards and guidelines. -
6:00 - 6:03They can produce your captions
and transcripts faster -
6:03 - 6:05and make them look
more professional and easy to read. -
6:05 - 6:09The costs for transcripts and captions
-
6:09 - 6:12vary from a dollar all the way
to $10 or $15 per minute. -
6:12 - 6:15And the rates really depend
-
6:15 - 6:18on experience and the skills
of the vendor, -
6:19 - 6:21the audio quality,
-
6:21 - 6:26the content complexity,
among other factors. -
6:26 - 6:29Low cost may result in bad quality.
-
6:29 - 6:32Some vendors may use
auto-captioning themselves -
6:32 - 6:35or unskilled labor
-
6:35 - 6:37that will result in low caption quality
-
6:37 - 6:39and end up wasting your money.
-
6:39 - 6:42Always review
the selected vendor's prior work -
6:42 - 6:44to assess the quality.
-
6:45 - 6:48If you have budget limitations,
-
6:48 - 6:50there are some creative ways
to find money -
6:50 - 6:52like asking sponsors to cover expenses.
-
6:54 - 6:57I work with media producers,
corporations, -
6:57 - 7:02educational institutions,
business owners, event organizers, -
7:02 - 7:06and I help make their audio,
video, and events accessible -
7:06 - 7:08at a reasonable cost.
-
7:08 - 7:11There's some guidance and information
along with my personal story -
7:11 - 7:14that can be found in my book.
-
7:14 - 7:16If nobody asks for speech to text access,
-
7:16 - 7:19that does not mean that there's no demand.
-
7:19 - 7:23It needs to be provided
for all types of aural information -
7:23 - 7:26even without a prior request.
-
7:26 - 7:29High quality, same language
captions and transcripts -
7:29 - 7:30are good for business
-
7:30 - 7:33and a necessity for millions of people.
-
7:33 - 7:35Let's think outside the ears!
-
7:35 - 7:36(Laughter)
-
7:36 - 7:38Let's caption everything!
-
7:38 - 7:40Get your message to more people.
-
7:40 - 7:41Thank you.
-
7:41 - 7:42(Applause)
- Title:
- How captions increase ROI and audience for media creators | Svetlana Kouznetsova | TEDxFultonStreet
- Description:
-
Producers of video and live events all want a larger audience. One of the most cost-effective ways to increase audience size is to provide quality captions. This serves not only the deaf and hard-of-hearing communities, but also the enormous fraction of viewers who are muted — including most content on facebook or on television in noisy venues. Svetlana Kouznetsova (Sveta) is a NYC-based user experience and accessibility consultant helping businesses make their products and services user-friendly and accessible to more people. Sveta works with business owners, media producers, corporations, educational institutions, event organizers. She has an MS in Internet Technology, several advanced certifications, and project experience with national/international organizations and non-profit/educational institutions. Sveta is also a founder of Audio Accessibility and provides consulting and training to businesses to help them improve quality captioning and other types of communication access to their audio, podcasts, videos, events in order to reach a wider audience. Sveta is an experienced speaker and author of a book, “Sound Is Not Enough: Captioning as Universal Design.” You can follow her on Twitter via @svknyc and @audio_a11y and check out her website for more information.
This talk was given at a TEDx event using the TED conference format but independently organized by a local community. Learn more at https://www.ted.com/tedx
- Video Language:
- English
- Team:
- closed TED
- Project:
- TEDxTalks
- Duration:
- 07:53