Some reasons to provide transcripts
Transcripts are often framed as an accessibility issue for people who are Deaf or hard of hearing. This is certainly the case; if you post a video or audio clip without a transcript or captions, people who are Deaf or hard of hearing will not be able to access it.
However, there are some other reasons to provide transcripts—reasons which I think should be pretty compelling even to people who don’t care about making their content accessible to Deaf and hard of hearing folks—if you want as many people as possible to be able to engage with your website and your content, you should be providing transcripts and image descriptions.
You don’t need captions and dismissal of needs
That aforementioned disadvantage of being unable to process sounds and dialogue kind of impairs my ability to watch a movie, especially the first time, under “normal” conditions, where the movie is put on and the audience sits down to watch without doing much else. However, in this day and age where we have DVDs with captions “for the hearing impaired,” I can make it so that there are captions to accompany the dialogue. The words on their own are just garbled sounds impossible to process in time because new sounds have to come in, but with words added, there are the characters to explain which words the sounds are supposed to be. They aid my understanding of which sounds go with which words.
My little boy was written a prescription for Occupational Therapy by his pediatrician for dyspraxia and hypotonia.
My insurance approved the prescription.
After 2 years, they revoked their approval because he has autism and backcharged me $24,000.
I know that this isn’t a helpful reaction, or one that reflects reality well, but my brain doesn’t seem to get the message. I wish it would, but that’ the beauty of mental illness, isn’t it? To have separate truths, coexisting.
That damned social conditioning, always reminding me that I am not the deserving poor, that there are people worse off than me and that I should just suck it up and do better. Other people “win” the battle against mental illness, why can’t I?
And a reminder: Next Carnival of Feminists is coming up on March 31 at Beauty Schooled Project. Deadline for submissions is March 29.
Note: There won’t be a Recommended Reading for Friday, March 26th as Don & I are visiting the Cancer Doctor to find out what’s going on with Radiation.
My true thoughts on what the insurance company is doing to that poor family in the “True Story” link are inappropriate for publication anywhere. So I’ll just say that I’m speechless with rage. Some of those collectors can be vicious, and to unleash them on not only a child but a child who could be really hurt by yelling and loud noises… well, it honestly makes me wonder what drives people to be that damned vicious.
Thanks for the link. I was wondering why my traffic went up.
Thanks for the link to one of my posts! That post is also mentioned in the first link you mention here, just so you know. I not only contribute to Here Be Dragons, I have my own blog. The link is my username.
JoSelle – why?
Money. We will never have medical peace (at least in this way) until insurance is not profit-based and beholden to shareholders and not their customers.
Money is the cause of so many fails when it comes to PWD and healthcare, but it’s not just money, it’s also how they want to use it. And who wants to add a ramp when we can have a big screen TV?