Before I started my business, I worked as a graphic designer for the same company for 11 years. Until one day, I got laid off. I was devastated. This job was literally all I ever knew.
I’ve been told that certain opportunities will never be available to me.
I’ve been told that there will always be an upper limit to what I can do professionally.
…all because I was born deaf.
When I applied for other jobs, I was either (1) immediately written off because of being deaf or (2) offered a much lower salary than my experience level.
I got tired of being told what I couldn’t do by everyone else.
So I dove in head first into the online world of business. I was amazed at HOW much content was out there, but there was a slight problem. All this content wasn’t accessible to someone like me. I may be able to speak, I may be able to hear some (I don’t read lips!), but I still have obstacles with being able to understand videos and podcasts.
There is so much GOOD stuff out there that I feel like I’m completely missing out! With all the technology that’s available out there, why isn’t it easier for me to access this content? Why aren’t things better than they were 10 years ago? I know some of us have gotten to the point where we just accept things for the way they are. But I really couldn’t accept things for the way they are because I truly wanted to make my business work, and I needed access to some of the most incredible content that is being put out there.
The challenge I faced was how could I approach someone to make this content accessible to me, and would they see value in it?
The answer I came up with was to JUST ASK. The worst they can do is say no… or not respond at all.
Guess what? Every time I asked someone about accessing their content, they were incredibly gracious, and would ask me what they could do to improve accessibility.
Here’s the problem, I really wasn’t sure. I’ve always had limitations, and just made do with what was available to me. But, the reality is, if I was going to make this business thing work and have it not be a complete fluke, I was going to need to figure it out.
I suggested transcripts, adding captions to videos, highlight notes, ANYTHING that they could do that wasn’t too much extra work for them. I didn’t want to demand anything because I knew most of these people were likely one-person operations, and they were just trying to make it work just as much as I was.
Here’s the thing, I don’t necessarily expect everyone to think about making their content immediately accessible to everyone because honestly, you’re designing your courses, your podcasts, your videos for who your dreamies are. I’m just here to give you a little glimpse of how beneficial it could be to make your content that much more accessible.
Why It’s Important to Make Your Video Marketing Content Accessible
First and foremost, SEO capabilities! Once you’ve got your video transcribed or captioned, you’re going to be able to repurpose it in several blog posts. Take that material and make it into Pinterest posts.
When you do videos, think about how often people watch videos on their phones, and how often they likely have it on mute. I never have the sound on, so when I’m scrolling and I see captions, I’m that much more likely to watch.
Within Instagram, for some reason, more and more people scroll through Instagram stories. I can’t tell you how many times I skip over someone’s Instagram stories because they haven’t typed out highlight notes or even have some sort of visual to share with what they’re talking about. On the Apple platform, they’ve got this fabulous app called Clipomatic. I REALLY love when people use it because I now know what they’re talking about and I’m able to engage more with you!
Key Tools to Make Your Video Marketing Content More Accessible
- Video Transcripts
- Translate audio into video
- Full videos for YouTube up to two hours
- Also available for other platforms
- Transcription – Audio to Text: $1 per minute
- Caption Your Videos: $1 per minute
- Foreign Subtitles: $3-$7 per minute
- Instagram Captions on iPhone: $4.99
- You can edit your captions
- This is more for voice notes, but I’ve used it to transcribe videos that aren’t captioned. While it’s not the most accurate, it still has helped me immensely.
- The multi-award winning Amara Public Editor is FREE and super easy to use. All video and subtitles are public, and open for collaboration when using this platform.
One Last Thought on Making Your Video Marketing More Accessible
As a business owner myself, I can completely understand how much work it is to make sure your content is accessible, and you need to see the value in it. My best piece of advice is to start with one thing at a time. Start with captioning Instagram Stories. Get comfortable with it. Then if you create videos and have the budget for it, start investing in captioning your videos! I’m looking forward to consuming more content, and hope that you’ll consider making it accessible for people like me!
We Need Your Help!
We are so excited to share that our friend Erin is working on a project to create more accessibility in the online business world. As a deaf entrepreneur, she has felt the frustration of not being able to access so much of the content that’s shared in our industry, and she’s working on creating a free resource guide that will enable you to create accessible content that doesn’t overwhelm you and feels totally doable.
But she needs our help!Â
She created a survey to collect information on what small businesses & online business owners like us know and want to learn when it comes to making our content accessible for deaf people. Would you take a minute to fill it out?
Here’s the link to fill out the survey. It’s completely anonymous!
https://forms.gle/buaiMCKRqqpRgiMt9
Want to learn more about getting started with video marketing and transforming your business leads? Get our Ultimate Guide to Video Marketing here.
