Accessibility of Podcasts

Stop Ignoring Your Podcast's Accessibility Issues

For all our talk about the open nature of podcasting, our content remains closed off to far too many. But with planning, easy-to-use services, and commitment, you can better reach an eager audience.

February 24, 2021

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Perhaps I've been too subtle, so let me speak clearly and louder for those in the back: Accessibility matters.

And by accessibility, I mean doing your part to ensure people with sight and hearing issues are able to enjoy your podcast, your website, and all the digital assets associated with your brand.

Common Accessibility Myths Busted

Many podcasters are operating under the impression that accessibility is optional. It's not.

Many podcasters operate under the misconception that deaf people cannot listen to podcasts, so why bother? This is untrue.

Hearing loss is a wide spectrum, ranging from mild to moderate to complete deafness. But all along that spectrum are people who do listen to podcasts just like yours. Don’t pile up your assumptions on them. Let them listen.

Many podcasters make video-versions of their episodes and operate under the misconception that blind people can't watch videos, so why bother? This is also untrue.

As before, there exists a wide spectrum of “sightedness”. And people all along that spectrum do, in fact, watch videos. Videos just like you make for your podcast. You don’t have to understand how that’s possible; you just have to accept that it is. And it is.

People with vision loss and hearing loss have access to all sorts of tools and services to allow them to enjoy the same content that fully-sighted and full-hearing people enjoy. Some have clever hacks or techniques they use that work for them and within their unique situation.

But those tools, services, and clever hacks can only work if you, the podcaster, do your part to include them in the party.

Accessibility Holes You Can Plug Right Now, Podcaster

Starting with your next episode, make a commitment to make a transcription available. Yes, of the entire episode. And make sure it’s a corrected transcript. Machine- or AI-generated transcripts are getting better, but they’re still comically bad. So make sure a human gives the text a final pass before you post it.

I wasn’t always good about this, but I’ve changed. All of my recent (and all of my future) episodes of Podcast Pontifications now have a corrected transcript on each episode’s page. Yes, it means additional hours (and dollars) spent, but it’s worth it. Not for some silly and incorrect SEO reasons. But because it’s the right thing to do.

If you make video versions of your episodes like I do, upload subtitles. Good news: the service you used to create your correct transcript can probably kick out subtitles in a ready-to-upload format.

Again, I wasn’t always good at this, but have become so. All of my recent (and all of my future) video versions of my episodes are subtitled. Not because it’ll give me a boost in YouTube’s algorithm, but because it’s the right thing to do.

Check your podcast’s website for accessibility problems. There are a variety of website accessibility services that scan your existing web pages and report back the most glaring accessibility issues, usually with recommendations of how to fix them.

I’m rolling out a brand new design for Podcast Pontifications in the coming weeks, and I’ll be working closely with the designer to make sure we’re getting as close to perfection as we can. Yes, that’s means they have to spend more time, which means I have to spend more money. But it’s money well spent to get it right... because getting it right is the right thing to do.

When you post images on your social media properties—even if of perhaps especially if you communicate your comments via animated gifs—take a few seconds and include an alt-tag. Not every service allows for that, which is their fault. But when you see that little “+ALT” prompt, you need to type a few characters to let everyone else in on your wit.

I’ve been making a conscious effort to do this for the past few months and it’s becoming second-nature. And, in case you haven’t picked up on the theme just yet, it’s the right thing to do.

Accessibility For Generated Podcast Websites

Not every podcaster wants to take the time or spend the money to develop a robust website for their podcast. But every podcast needs a website, so most podcast hosting companies will automatically generate one. And because many of those suck, a variety of for-an-extra-fee service providers exist to make a better-looking website using little more than your podcast’s RSS feed.

If you happen to run or work for a service—either a hosting company or a website-from-RSS company—you need to ensure the pages you generate are accessible. And if you’re charging money for your service, there’s really no excuse for not having accessible pages. So get that on your development roadmap. Because it’s the right thing to do.

Accessibility As Table Stakes For Podcast Production Houses

Those of us who make podcasts for other people for a living need to lead by example. So I might as well start.

For all future clients, accessibility will be baked-in at all of our service level offerings. Not as an add-on. That means adjusting our pricing and service timing to account for the creation of full and corrected transcripts. Because it’s the right thing to do. We’ll be changing our “agnostic” stance on podcast hosting and other service providers to only recommend those who take accessibility seriously. Because it’s the right thing to do.

For existing clients, we’ll soon examine the work we’re doing on their behalf and provide an “accessibility audit” of sorts, pointing out areas of deficiency and providing a roadmap for improvement. No, I’m not “canceling” clients who are unable or unwilling to immediately make changes. Instead, I’ll gently nudge and do my part to help them get to better place. Because it’s the right thing to do.

As mentioned, I’m re-vamping Podcast Pontifications and will ensure the new site is fully accessible. After that, I’ll engage the same designer to re-tumble Simpler Media’s website, again with the goal of making it look and sound great to every potential visitor, no matter their level of perception.

I’m doing this because I want to lead by example. And because it’s the right thing to do.

Where Will You Start?

That’s a lot to think about, I know. Transcripts, subtitles, alt tags, website changes… and that’s just scratching the surface.

My suggestion: Reach out to your own podcasting circle and see what actions your fellow podcasters are already taking. Chances are, at least one person in your group already has made good strides in this direction who you can learn from. And if not, share a link to this article to start the conversation.

And if you love this idea and have already had some sparks of inspiration hit you, then go take that action! And when you're done, go to BuyMeACoffee.com/evoterra and pass a virtual coffee my way.

I shall be back tomorrow with yet another Podcast Pontifications.

Cheers!

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Podcast Pontifications is written and narrated by Evo Terra. He’s on a mission to make podcasting better. Allie Press proofed the copy, corrected the transcript, and edited the video. Podcast Pontifications is a production of Simpler Media.

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For all our talk about the open nature of podcasting, our content remains closed off to far too many. But with planning, easy-to-use services, and commitment, you can better reach an eager audience.

Hello, and welcome to another Podcast Pontifications with me, Evo Terra.

Perhaps I've been too subtle. Accessibility matters. The accessibility of your podcast to people who do not have the same sight that you might have, or the same hearing levels that you might have, is important.

There's this misconception, I think that many podcasters have, that accessibility is somehow an optional thing. It's not. There's another misconception that deaf people cannot listen to a podcast, so what's the point? Untrue. There's an entire spectrum, if you will, of hearing loss. Some mild, some moderate, some extreme, but every single one of those buckets along the spectrum have people in them who listen to podcasts.

There's another misconception that blind people can't watch the videos of our podcast that we might put out there. Again, not true because again, there's a spectrum, if you will, of the level of sightedness from some sight problems to all sight problems, and yet every single one of those people every step along the way can and do watch videos.

But that only works if you and me as podcasters do our part, because the people on these spectrums have tools and services, or have found ways to consume content that normal-sighted, and normal-hearing people can get to. But again, those tools and those shortcuts and those hacks only work if we, the podcasters, do our part.

So a few things you need to do to stop ignoring your podcast accessibility issues. Number one, the easy thing that every single one of you should start doing immediately, is transcribing your podcast's episodes. A full transcription, and I don't just mean a machine-generated or AI-generated transcription. Those are a good place to start, but they're not done. It needs to be corrected so that it reads nicely.

I admit I wasn't doing this for a while. I'm doing it now. And I'm telling you it is worth it. Not because of some silly SEO reasons, but because it's the right thing to do. Start transcribing your podcast's episodes. All of them.

If you're publishing videos, like I publish a video version of me talking to the camera, you need, as I have done, to add subtitles to your video. Again, because it's the right thing to do. That transcript that I have been now putting out that's corrected, guess what? Very easily fits into the video as subtitles. You can do it, too.

Oh, you should check your website. Your podcast has a website. For accessibility problems, possibly, check those problems. There are lots of free services out there, which will let you, even if you have normal sight, normal hearing, you can check. You can use these tools to analyze and audit your website and see what needs to be corrected. Again, because it's the right thing to do.

If you post images, which you probably post images on social media properties. Yeah, guess what? You need to add alt text to every one of those images that you're posting. Yes, I know it's a pain, but now they make it pretty simple, most of the tools, not all of them. I understand that some of the social media apps don't let you do this, but for those that do, when you see the plus alt button, when you upload an image, click it. Take a few more seconds to type in some text that describes that image. Again, you do this because it's the right thing to do.

Now, if you happen to be listening and you run a podcast hosting company, or you have a service that generates webpages for podcasters by using their RSS feed, you need to check and see if the services you're providing are fully accessible. And if they are not, you need to have a heart-to-heart conversation with yourself, especially if you're charging money for these services.

That's on you. You need to do this. You don't really have an option any longer. You need to go through and make sure that the content you're generating and you're charging people to generate is fully accessible. Get it on your roadmap.

Now, for me personally, a few things. One, for my company, I run a company called Simpler Media and we make podcasts for businesses. Starting now, I am baking this in to all future clients. It is not going to be an optional line item. It's just going to be part of the service we provide. A transcription, a fully-corrected transcription at a bare minimum will be something we provide for every client that we have going forward.

And I'm also going to go back to all of my current clients who are not using that service because we weren't providing that service and I'm going to suggest they also implement full accessibility issues, including that transcript. And to help with that, we're going to provide a free audit. We'll probably be pretty expansive on what we need to do to help them get everything that they're doing fully optimized.

We only help certain clients in certain aspects. Sometimes you do everything, sometimes a little bit, but we're going to audit everything and point out to them what they need to change. And yes, I'm also doing a self-audit. Right now, Podcast Pontifications is meh, but there's a brand new design coming for the website that I am super, super stoked about.

And I'm going to make sure, as part of that, that it is as accessible as it can be for both people with hearing loss and people who are visually impaired. Yes. And other issues that might come up in the accessibility issue. Yep. We're going to do a full sweep of the whole thing because that's how important it is because it's the right thing to do.

I've already got transcripts on there. I've got subtitled videos. I'm really good, I think I'm really good, about posting all tags on my social media posts. And you want to do this, too.

So where are you going to start? Chances are your podcasting circle, your podcasting bubble, if you will, there's someone inside of that bubble who probably has a headstart, who's been thinking about this. So ask. Send the link to this episode, if you like, and start the conversation with your peers in the podcasting space. And let's work together to stop ignoring our podcasts' accessibility issues, shall we?

Now, if you loved this content, this idea, if I said things that sparked you to go take action, please go take action. And then when you're done, go to buymeacoffee.com/evoterra, and pass a virtual coffee my way. That's always nice.

That's it. I shall be back tomorrow with yet another Podcast Pontifications.

Cheers!

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