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Re: YouTube's lack of support for detailed text transcripts

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From: Elizabeth Thomas
Date: Sep 15, 2021 12:18PM

#2- for on screen text or graphs/diagrams that aren't included in the audio, I include that information in a transcript (I provide the link in the video description). The transcript is basically the captions without the time stamps and restructured as paragraph text (with headings as needed). Plus, it includes the text- alternatives for the visual-only content.

A. I have tried requiring that anything shown on the screen (except for purely decorative things) be included in the audio. However, in my experience, people aren't great at implementing that requirement. They often think they have implemented it, but have actually provided super important content as text on the screen with no narration. But that might not be the case in your team.

C. I would definitely link to the page with the transcript in the description. (I usually include a transcript for all videos, because, as you pointed out, YouTube's transcript is not easy to read due to the time stamps. If I were consuming the content from the video via a transcript, I would definitely want it written in a more conventional format with paragraphs, etc.)

-Elizabeth Thomas
Digital Accessibility Specialist (CPACC, ADA)
Sent from my iPhone

> On Sep 15, 2021, at 12:33 PM, <EMAIL REMOVED> wrote:
>
> Hello,
> To my knowledge, when accessing a video on the YouTube site, YouTube does not support the ability to upload a detailed text transcript (yet) and when users "open the transcript" via the . . . options, they will get the timestamps and the spoken information from the voiceover track (the caption file).
> 3 questions around this:
>
> 1. Does anyone know if Google is working on supporting the ability to upload a custom text transcript?
>
> 2. What are others in the digital accessibility community doing to care for the disclosure information, on-screen text, URLs, etc. that are not part of the spoken voiceover so that all users have access to that content?
>
> a. As a point of discussion, within my organization, we are discussing requiring that all "on-screen text" in a video is spoken out (including disclosures) in the voiceover track - thus, it then shows up in the transcript on YouTube. In general, my Marketing partners have become really good about including most on-screen text in the voiceover track for a richer, more accessible experience - it is mostly the legal disclosure content that is the topic of debate.
>
> b. Keep in mind, the same video is offered on a Wells Fargo branded landing page, via the embedded YouTube player, where a detailed text transcript link is provided that includes legal disclosure content.
>
> c. One other thing to note, we have considered adding details in the "description" area on the YouTube site, the text area just below the video, that refers a user back to the landing page with the full detailed text transcript.
>
> 3. Lastly, is there any user research anyone is aware of that supports the notion that not only users that rely on screen readers, but all users would like disclosure content to be spoken out.
>
> Thank you
> Laurie Merryman
>
> Laurie Merryman
> AVP, SDI, Consumer Digital Accessibility
> Wells Fargo - Innovation and SDI Operations
>
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