YouTube and TikTok add new options for automated captions, improving accessibility
YouTube has taken a new step in advancing the use of subtitles in its app, while TikTok is also looking to expand its accessibility features by make automatic subtitles available on all clips.
First, on YouTube: today, YouTube Chief Product Officer neal mohamed announced that creators can more easily outsource the creation and editing of captions on their clips in the YouTube Studio app.
Subtitles are essential to make content more accessible. We have therefore deployed a feature that allows @YouTubeCreators delegate creation and editing of subtitles to third parties securely – hopefully this will save creators time and allow viewers to have even more content… pic.twitter.com/K75s25EDGT
—Neal Mohan (@nealmohan) April 12, 2022
As you can see here, now in the “Permissions” item there is a new option to add a “Caption Editor” role in the app, so you can grant third party access to manage subtitles on your clips.
This will help improve the accuracy and readability of your content’s captions. YouTube also, it should be noted, offers automated captions on all uploads, but since these are automated they are not always accurate, which is especially true for some languages, and this option will facilitate additional manageability. on this aspect.
TikTok is also looking to upgrade access to captions and improve usability for more people, by enabling automatic English captions by default for all uploads.
As you can see in this alert, shared by a social media expert Matt Navarre, TikTok is looking to expand the availability of subtitles by enabling them by default. Users can still include their own subtitles, which would override this step, while they can also enable disable auto-generated subtitles or change language display options in the download stream.
Although in most cases you can also leave them on – and you can change auto captions after they’ve been created, and for most short clips in the app it probably won’t take long to make sure that they are Correct.
Either way, it will bring more text options to more TikTok clips, which can only help improve accessibility, while also helping users watch in “silent” environments to get better context on the subject of your videos.
Accessibility has become a key focus for social apps in recent years, with each platform adding more tools and options to help a wider range of users access their content. Which is a positive step and a significant development for the more than 70 million deaths worldwide.
Additionally, with over 80% of Deaf people living in developing regions, this is also a critical consideration for apps as they reach new markets, and with TikTok and YouTube seeing adoption. wider in the world, it is important that each application takes relevant steps to maximize utility.
