Enhance Accessibility and Universal Reach of Your Video-Based Marketing with Speech-to-Text Features

[Approximate Reading Time : 4 mins]

Increasing the accessibility and reach of your marketing videos are nonnegotiable must-dos in the current environment, upended as it has been by the pandemic of COVID-19. Studies show that 80 percent of users have consumed more digital content in the pandemic period than ever before. According to an article, “A Definitive Guide to Video Marketing 2020 : Stats, Strategies, and Challenges,” published by www.clickz.com:

• 78 percent watch videos every week.
• 55 percent watch videos every day.
• 72 percent of customers prefer learning about a product or service by watching videos.
• 82 percent of all consumer internet traffic will come from online videos by 2022.

Staying inside, with the mobile or laptop for company has been the common theme of our daily lives—for every one of us, people of every hue and predilection all over the world—for the able and for people with disabilities (PWD). All of us consumed digital content on overdrive. The more accessible the content, the more engagement it garnered. And adding speech-to-text features to videos can play a major role in making them accessible and comprehensive for everyone, thus helping brands get a better audience reach.

Here are examples of some speech-to-text features that can be added to your videos to enhance their accessibility, visibility, and reach:

Subtitles

Subtitles refer to text displayed on screen that mirrors the dialogue being spoken. In other words, the audio being spoken on the screen is rendered as text either at the bottom or at the top of the screen. These are used to accommodate viewers with hearing disabilities. Subtitles are also useful in foreign language videos and in instances where the speaker’s accent or dialect is difficult to follow, even in one’s own native tongue. Using subtitles assures a level of comfort for the consumer who engages more vividly and deeply with the content, hence enhancing the reach and accessibility of the digital content.

Closed-Captioning

Closed-captioning (CC) means the textual representation of the audio for people with hearing disabilities, which includes speech and nonspeech elements like the identity of the speakers and sound effects. Closed captions, often denoted by a CC icon on remotes, assume that the consumer cannot hear. Including closed captions exponentially increases the reach of your videos, if you consider that globally 1.5 billion people live with some degree of hearing loss, of which 48 million are Americans and 11 million are in the United Kingdom. Catering to this large number of consumers and helping them engage with and enjoy the content, often prompting a profitable call for action, is not just ethical but great for your business.

CC is not just a boon for people with hearing disabilities; recall the piece of advice mentioned earlier. Studies have shown that 85 percent of Facebook videos are watched without sound. Many people with normal hearing often choose to watch videos with CC only and the audio on mute for various reasons, including multitasking.

Closed captions help videos rank higher in search results, allowing your video content to reach a larger audience.

Finally, adding CC to your videos ensures your compliance with the accessibility requirements of the Web Accessibility Initiative (WAI), potentially avoiding any litigations.

Foreign-Language Translated Text

This is becoming increasingly important in a global economy, where products and services are moving beyond immediate locales and embracing the world at large. The key to make your digital marketing content relevant to an international audience, by unlocking the language barrier and winning interest and engagement, is translated text (with all the cultural nuances intact). This may include judicious use of subtitles and closed-captioning in the interests of accessibility and inclusivity.

As the world stridently marches to a digital drum, it is a no-brainer that every brand wishing to sustain and thrive must embed accessibility into all of its content that is out there for consumption. The above-mentioned speech-to-text features are then a surefire way to enhance the reach of video-based marketing.

To ensure inclusivity for all your content, reach out to our experts at [email protected]. At Amnet, we provide a comprehensive suite of web accessibility services: https://amnet-systems.com/accessibility/.