From stumbling across comments on an online forum I learnt that, like me, many people at work prefer reading or /scanning video transcripts rather than watching the videos themselves. This really interested me, and led me to wonder how many other people preferred to read video transcripts, and was it for the same reason?
For context, I should explain that I work in Internal Communications in the Ministry of Defence, and on our intranet, we provide separate transcripts with our videos to ensure the widest majority of our colleagues can access and understand the content. In addition to captions within the video itself, the transcript is displayed below the video.
Adding these features ensures our video content is accessible to people with disabilities. Captions help those with hearing impairments follow the audio, while transcripts assist individuals with cognitive disabilities in understanding the content. These features also benefit people with attention difficulties and those with visual impairments who may prefer using screen readers/web narrators to read text on web pages.
Additionally, captions and transcripts offer greater flexibility for users with motor disabilities. Altogether, this ensures our video content fully complies with the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.2 AA standard.
We provide headsets for online meetings and to quietly watch work related videos in the office and at home.
However, I was particularly interested in how our colleagues interacted and used video transcripts if they did not have any particular accessibility requirements. Although my results are focused on the behaviours of internal MOD colleagues, I suspect the results are similar for external audiences too.
I asked a cross section of Ministry of Defence personnel questions on whether they preferred to watch videos, read the transcripts, or both, and their reasons.
I really wanted to understand the motivation and reason for their choices. I listed some possible examples based on what I already knew from reading and talking to stakeholders. There was a free text option too. They could select more than one statement and complete the free text option.
The questions
Non-accessibility reasons for reading video transcripts:
- I’m short on time
- The videos are too long
- I read the transcript to see if the video content is relevant to me
- I use the transcript to easily copy and paste the content elsewhere
- I don’t want to miss any detail
- Other (free text)
Reasons for watching videos:
- I prefer visuals
- I prefer visuals and captions/subtitles together
- I prefer to listen to videos in the background while I do something else
- Other (free text)
Reasons for both watching videos and reading the transcripts:
- I read the transcript to see if the video content is relevant to me, then I watch the video
- I use the transcript to easily copy and paste the content elsewhere
- I don’t want to miss any detail
- Other (free text)
The results
We had 87 respondents, and we discovered:
- Similar numbers of respondents watch video content without reading transcripts (28%) as do the opposite - reading the transcripts without watching the video (25%).
- Of those reading the transcripts, over half do this to see if the video is going to be relevant to them (55%), almost half do it as they’re short on time and it is quicker to read the transcript (46%).
- Those who prefer watching video do so as they prefer visual content (46%), or they listen to the videos in the background while doing other work (42%).
- Around a quarter of respondents watch videos and read the transcript to ensure they don’t miss any information (23%).
- Around a quarter of the people who watch the video and read the transcript also use the transcript to copy and paste the content easily elsewhere (23%).
Some people said they would watch a video if they had time (or if it was short) otherwise they would read the transcript. The topic of the video was also a deciding factor on whether they chose to watch or read the content.
Other reasons people gave for only reading video transcripts were, “I don't like wearing a headset” and “Bandwidth”.
Accessibility is usability
We may provide transcripts for accessibility reasons; however, people read and use transcripts for many non-accessibility reasons too. Video transcripts are treated as a standalone piece of content.
This clearly demonstrates that when we present content in accessible ways, it benefits all users, regardless of their needs.
If you have done similar user research on video transcripts or can think of other non-accessibility reasons that people use transcripts, then leave us a comment.
Good transcripts are:
- Accurate - many transcripts are automatically generated and can fail to adapt to strong regional accents so it’s always advised to check it for accuracy.
- Identifying - If there is more than one speaker in the video, make sure that they are identified by name so it’s clear who is ‘talking’ on the transcript.
- Descriptive - In addition to the spoken word they include descriptions of important visual information like graphs, inserted images and other things that wouldn't otherwise be knowable without seeing the video. This ensures context and meaning to people who are both deaf and blind.
Read Making Audio and Video Media Accessible (W3.org) for further guidance.
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