As a hearing impaired individual I was very pleased to find that InDesignSecrects.com has made an effort to bring their podcast to the hearing impaired. They had an individual write to them explaining that as a hearing impaired individual he felt that he was unable to enjoy the podcast that so many other InDesign users do. I was very impressed with the reaction from Ann-Marie Concepcion and David Blatner and how they addressed the issue in Podcast 22. They decided to provide written transcripts of their podcasts so that individuals not able to listen to the podcasts can read what was discussed.

This move by InDesignSecrects.com to make an effort to get hearing impaired individuals involved got me thinking about how so many other podcasts could do the same. It also got me thinking about the fact that videocasts are not usually available with closed caption. Why is this? Is this something that can be changed? Web designers make an effort to add “alt” tags to images on the web for those who are blind and have special software that reads them websites So why can’t the same courtesy be given to hearing impaired individuals when it comes to videocasts and podcasts? I think this is something that needs to change and the blogosphere should be reactive to these requests.

There are some places trying to bring closed caption to their videos. Lynda.com is one of the first sites I saw that has the availability on some of it’s videocasts. There is even a write up on their site about closed caption. Personally I think they need to grow the number that are available but I applaud them for being out front of what I hope will be a movement to make things a little easier for hearing impaired individuals.

As a hearing impaired individual I want to personally thank InDesignSecrets.com and Lynda.com for making the effort. I am sure there are others out there doing the same and I hope they will come forward to tell us who they are. If you know of a site making this same effort then please post a link to their site in the comments. If I get enough I will write another post listing those that have been mentioned. Hopefully more podcast and videocasts will take notice of what others have done and make an effort to do the same. It will be appreciated by those who would otherwise not get to be involved with those communities.

This entry was posted on Monday, April 2nd, 2007 at 9:27 pm and is filed under Graphic Design, Blogging, Industry News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.