Thursday, September 28, 2006

Podcasting, Transcripts and Accessibility

Is it enough to just do transcripts to provide equal access to information for the hearing impaired? In speech a totally different meaning is garnered from a sentence depending where the emphasis is placed in the sentence. This may not carry over into a transcript, For example, the question "what did you do?"

If this question is asked without any emphasis being put on any words the question has one meaning. The same question has a totally different meaning than if the same is asked with the emphasis on the word "what." This question has again another meaning than if the same is asked with the emphasis on the word "you."

Do transcripts alone give equal access to the information conveyed in a spoken sentence, especially if the podcast consists of conversations with all the subtle audio inflections given to how people communicate verbally?

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