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Re: Video Transcript Question (Bump)

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From: Tim Harshbarger
Date: Nov 24, 2014 9:58AM

I think whether or not a downloadable transcript would be useful depends on the use cases.

When it comes to using the transcript as an accessible alternative, I think there is a tendency for the user to utilize the transcript just like they would use the video. I do not believe that people typically download video for later viewing offline and so I'm uncertain someone using a transcript as the accessible alternative is likely to behave any differently.

In that case, why not just use HTML for the transcript? They are already viewing a web page in the browser to access the video. Switching to PDF is going to change the user's context. They are going to have to mentally switch their frame of mind from navigating a web page to navigating a PDF document. With HTML, you can keep them in the same mental context. No switching gears. No swapping back and forth between using the web page and navigating the PDF document.

I expect there are use cases where a downloadable PDF transcript would be useful. However, in most cases, I suspect that HTML transcripts maintain a slight advantage over PDF transcripts.

It does sound like maybe some of this conversation might be more about ease of production than use cases. That is definitely a worthwhile consideration. How easy is it to convert the transcript from its original format into another format that is accessible? I have not had to convert a Word document to either an accessible HTML or PDF in some time, so I don't know what the level of effort or skill it would take to do that now. Depending on your video production process, you'll likely have some limitations on the amount of time you have to create an accessible transcript before the video is published. And that could potentially have a large impact on your format choices.