Audio Broadcasting Is Cool, But Are You Losing Visitors?

Lately I’ve been considering getting an Audioblog account. 2005 is gearing up to be a very productive year for the Wild Blue Lizards and I considered maximizing my time by blogging during my commute. But I’m a little thrifty (some call it cheap), so I hesitate to pay someone to do something that I can do. I was thinking about trying to make an audio entry, just to test out my skills and then it dawned on me: I know that some of my visitors are either deaf or hard of hearing. I certainly don’t want to alienate guests by switching to a format that they couldn’t participate in!

I thought about offering a transcript with the audio, but the point of going audio is to save the time typing. If I’m going to type out my broadcast I may as well just forget about the audio altogether. I did a brief search and found a tutorial on captioning in your most popular media players. Very much like the closed captioning available on television, but the captions appear in the media player. The tutorials are located on the WebAIM Web site, a site dedicated to Web accessibility. Once I was on the site I became consumed with reviewing the other accessibility issues I’d not thought of.

For now I am going to stick to typing. If Audioblog were to start offering captioning or accessibility for my hearing impaired friends I will definitely sign up, having realized that I’d be paying a nominal fee for a convenience and a time saver. I just ask that others who are offering audio content online consider those who might be unable to fully appreciate the new big thing.