The following article is part of a series on the importance of digital accessibility. The author is the interim executive director of digital accessibility and online learning.
Imagine joining an online meeting for work. Your colleagues are talking, sharing ideas and making decisions. Someone tells a joke and everyone laughs. A few minutes later, the conversation shifts and an important deadline is announced.
But you cannot hear what is being said. You turn on the captions. The words begin appearing on the screen, but they are delayed. A name is incorrect. A sentence does not quite make sense. Two people begin talking at the same time, and it becomes difficult to tell who is saying what.
You try to follow along while also watching the presentation, reading the chat and figuring out what you may have missed.
For someone who is deaf or hard of hearing, captions and other accessible ways of receiving audio information can be essential to participating in digital spaces.
For UNMC faculty, staff and students who rely on captions or transcripts, accessibility can shape something as ordinary as attending a meeting, watching a training video or completing a course.
As one UNMC student, Kaci Nugent, said, “Captions help me follow along at the same pace as everyone else. I can follow who is speaking, whether it is an instructor or a student, and I am able to go back and read anything I may have missed because I looked away during the lecture.”
When the content creates the barrier
Digital accessibility is not only about what someone can see. It is also about making sure information communicated through sound is available another way.
Consider a recorded presentation in which the speaker says, “As you can see here, this number is significantly higher,” without explaining what the number is. Or a video that includes important dialogue but does not have captions. A podcast may contain valuable information but provide no transcript.
In each case, understanding the content depends on being able to hear it. Captions provide a text version of spoken dialogue and other meaningful sounds in a video. Transcripts provide a written version of audio content. When important information is communicated visually without being spoken, additional description may also be needed.
“On difficult days, if the internet drops or the captioning glitches, I miss a lot of what is being said,” Nugent said. “When words are misspelled or delayed, that affects my learning. Even with an interpreter, not every word has a sign, so transcripts and captions help me see the exact spelling. It is also impossible to take notes, watch the PowerPoint, and follow the conversation all at once when accurate captions aren’t available.”
These may be small decisions for the person creating the content. For the person trying to use it, they can have a significant impact.
Accessibility is part of everyday work
At UNMC, sound is part of the digital content we create and share every day.
- An instructor records a lecture.
- A staff member hosts a Teams or Zoom meeting.
- A department posts a video.
- Someone creates a narrated PowerPoint, webinar or podcast.
Each interaction may seem small, yet together they shape someone’s digital experience at UNMC.
Accessibility affects more than our students. The person accessing your content may be a faculty member, colleague, employee, patient or member of the public. We may never know who benefits from the accessibility choices we make because disabilities are not always visible.
“I wish people understood how exhausting it is to rely on an interpreter and never look away, not even to write something down or sneeze, because important information can be missed,” Nugent said. “Captions and transcripts give me full access, and they give me room to breathe while staying on pace with everyone else.”
Creating accessible multimedia does not have to be complicated. Caption videos and review automatically generated captions for accuracy. Provide transcripts for audio-only content. Make sure important information communicated through sound is also available another way. During live meetings, use available captioning features and encourage speakers to identify themselves when needed.
These choices can benefit more than people who are deaf or hard of hearing. Captions can also help someone in a noisy environment, working in a quiet space without headphones, learning unfamiliar terminology or processing information better when they can read and listen at the same time.
The UNMC Digital Accessibility Resource Hub on SharePoint provides step-by-step guidance, checklists, videos, training resources and other tools for creating accessible digital content. Training, open office hours and individual consultations are also available.
The next time you host a meeting, record a presentation or share a video, ask yourself: “If you could not hear it, would you still have access to the information?” That question can serve as a starting point for a more accessible digital experience.