Making Your Podcast More Accessible (Podcamp Toronto 2020)

Podcasts are great for those who can hear perfectly as well as use a device to download your podcast. But what about those who can’t? There are many things you can do to make your podcast more accessible so more people can listen to your podcast (or read the transcript).

This deck (and the soon to come recorded audio) is under CC BY-SA 4.0 (Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0), see https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/ for details on that.

Transcript

1. MAKING YOUR PODCAST MORE ACCESSIBLE Presented by Gregory Hammond Twitter: @devGregory #PCTO20 This presentation is under CC BY-SA 4.0 (Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0) which you can find more details at https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/
2. Who is this for? (any of the below) •Podcasters who are established •Those who are in the design or web space •Those with accessibilities who want to learn more •Not any of these? You are welcome to keep reading but you aren’t required to. Twitter: @devGregory #PCTO20
3. Brief About Presenter Gregory Hammond: • By day he helps businesses and individuals with their websites (doing almost anything related to the website) • By night he is a member of Toastmasters, accessibility & privacy advocate, night owl • Has had multiple disabilities in the past 3 years. • Personal Website: https://gregoryhammond.ca • Business Website: https://gjdev.ca/ Twitter: @devGregory #PCTO20
4. Why Should I Care To Make My Podcast More Accessible? • You will get more people listening / enjoying your podcast • It shows that understand some may have some accessibility issues • Increase user engagement[1] • Increase SEO • More people to your website • More people linking to your website • It’s just the right thing to do • [1] https://www.3playmedia.com/customers/case-studies/this-american-life/ Twitter: @devGregory #PCTO20
5. Twitter: @devGregory #PCTO20 Link to tweet: https://twitter.com/CHERdotdev/status/1190255153498202112
6. Are you going to cover everything? • Can’t possibility cover everything related to podcasts and accessibility. This is just going to be a few things. • Want to learn about making your website more accessible? Stay for the next presentation and Claudia will cover that in detail. • Have a question, there will be a Q&A session at the end or you can reach me via twitter or email. Twitter: @devGregory #PCTO20
7. Not Just For Those Who Can Perfectly Hear • Have the option to speed up or slow down your podcast (give the user the ability to speed up or slow down how much they want), don’t just direct them to a podcast platform • Have a transcription underneath your notes (there are free and paid ones – Express Scribe (free), scribie ($0.10 / min), GoTranscript ($0.72 / min), TranscribeMe ($0.79 / min) • Consider offering a video option –YouTube is a great free place to put your videos Twitter: @devGregory #PCTO20
8. Have A Clearer Microphone • More people can hear you better if you have a clearer microphone • Could mean upgrading from a headset microphone to a USB microphone • Thewirecutter.com[1] has an unbiased review list of USB microphones. [1] https://thewirecutter.com/reviews/the-best-usb-microphone/ Twitter: @devGregory #PCTO20
9. Offer The Flexibility • Not everyone wants to hear it right now – offer a download option • Offer it on as many podcast platforms as you can (Spotify, Apple Music, Google Podcasts, Stitcher and the most popular) • Not everyone uses a mouse & keyboard (have just keyboard accessibility) • Have a website which looks good on every device • Have you thought about voice assistants like Alexa or Google Home? [1] • What other ways do your listeners consume your podcast? • [1] http://podcasternews.com/2019/12/14/spotify-users-in-the-u-s-can-now-play- podcasts-through-alexa/ Twitter: @devGregory #PCTO20
10. Link To Your Sources • In your show notes link to almost everything you talk about, and anything that will add more details • Why? Shows creditability[1], and that you have done your research, and you didn’t create the facts out of thin air • What if I talk about tons of things? Either have long show notes, or create a google doc that has all the links • [1] https://moz.com/blog/5-reasons-you-should-link-out-to-others-from-your- website Twitter: @devGregory #PCTO20
11. Add Alt Text Twitter: @devGregory #PCTO20 • Alt text is primarily for those who are have trouble seeing. • “Alt text is the written copy that appears in place of an image on a webpage if the image fails to load. […] This text helps screen- reading tools describe images to visually impaired readers and allows search engines to better crawl and rank your website.” [1] • Facebook[2], Instagram[3], and Twitter[4] all have the option for alt text • Everywhere you have an image you should be able to put an alt text • What makes an good alt text? Moz.com covers this [5] [1] https://blog.hubspot.com/marketing/image-alt-text [2] https://www.facebook.com/help/214124458607871 [3] https://help.instagram.com/503708446705527 [4] https://help.twitter.com/en/using-twitter/picture-descriptions [5] https://moz.com/learn/seo/alt-text
12. Make Your Social Media Accessible • Don’t use hard to read text[1] • Use captions (and alt text) when possible [2] • CAPTCHA’s are a nightmare. [3] • Spread your posts through the day • Have open messages, so someone can message you (if that is better for them) • Use capital letters at the start of each word of a hashtag • [1] https://www.queensu.ca/accessibility/how-info/social-media-accessibility • [2] https://lifeofablindgirl.com/2018/10/31/6-ways-to-make-your-social-media-posts-accessible-for-people-with-a-visual-impairment/ • [3] https://www.w3.org/WAI/GL/wiki/Captcha_Alternatives_and_thoughts Twitter: @devGregory #PCTO20
13. Pick An Accessible Media Player • Not every media player is the same, and not every media player is accessible • Should be operable by keyboard only • Don’t autoplay • Ability to add synchronized transcript • If video: ability to add described video & show / hide captions • Accessible media players: AblePlayer, JW Player, Ozplayer, YouTube • Thanks to https://podcast-accessibility.com/accessible-media-players/ for the guidance on this. Twitter: @devGregory #PCTO20
14. How Do I Tell A Podcaster I Want Their Podcast To Be More Accessible? • You can’t force it • Contact them on your preferred method and tell you have a disability (list it if you want) and that you want to enjoy their podcast but you can’t fully unless they offer x • Direct them to this presentation & the slides. • If nothing else then stop listening to the podcast. Twitter: @devGregory #PCTO20
15. What are some accessible podcasts? • CodeNewbie [1] • BBC Radio 4 In Touch [2] • This American Life [3] • S-Town [4] • Freakonomics [5] • [1] https://www.codenewbie.org/podcast • [2] https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b006qxww/episodes/player • [3] https://www.thisamericanlife.org/ • [4] https://stownpodcast.org/ • [5] http://freakonomics.com/archive/ Twitter: @devGregory #PCTO20
16. Accessible Canada Act Most Likely Doesn’t Apply To You You don’t have to make your podcast more accessible. The accessible Canada act applies to federally regulated organizations[1][2][3]. If you do all these things it shows you care about those who have any sort of disabilites. All these things talked about are things you can do on your own, or can pay someone to do. [1] https://www.canada.ca/en/employment-social-development/programs/accessible- people-disabilities/act-summary.html#section3-5 [2] https://archdisabilitylaw.ca/resource/fact-sheet-what-is-the-new-accessible-canada- act-aca/ [3] https://laws.justice.gc.ca/eng/acts/A-0.6/index.html Twitter: @devGregory #PCTO20
17. What Else? Ask your listeners. Have an anonymous survey to see how else your podcast can be more accessible. Twitter: @devGregory #PCTO20
18. THANKS. Twitter: @devGregory #PCTO20 @devGregory on Twitter gregory+podcamp@gregoryhammond.ca Want to give me feedback? Fill in the form at http://bit.ly/gregoryfb