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Closed captions on videos - four reasons to add them

Fri 5 Sep 2014, 11:27 AM



by Ben Langhinrichs
I've said it before and I'll probably say it again, if you are going to put out videos for an international audience (such as the Notes/Domino community), add closed captions. Youtube has made this easier and easier, though it is still a fairly time intensive and annoying process. But the value goes beyond providing access to the hearing impaired, though that is a good reason in and of itself.
 
There are four advantages to using closed captions:
 
1) People who are hard of hearing or watching in a noisy place can follow along more easily;
2) People whose native language isn't English (or who find your accent hard) can follow along more easily;
3) People who want to see a translated version in their native language will get far better translation from accurate captions; and.
4) People who need to watch with the sound off can still watch your video.
 
Tip: If you watch full screen, the captions will show below the video as opposed to superimposed over it.
 
Trying to practice what I preach, I went back and added closed captions to two of my recent videos which didn't have tghem. They are below. 
 
 
 
 

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