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Across the board, Maximum Fun podcasts do not provide transcripts with their shows. Without transcripts, whole populations (including deaf and hard-of-hearing folks, neurodivergent people, people with auditory processing disorders and more) cannot access audio mediums like podcasts. Jesse Thorn, owner of Max Fun, has said that part of the reason for this is a lack of demand, and that he thinks deaf and hard-of-hearing people won’t find the humor in many of the podcasts by reading them. Not only is this incorrect, it puts the responsibility of accessibility onto disabled people. It also ignores the fact that for many, reading is the only way to access certain media like podcasts. It is imperative that content creators build accessibility into their products from the start. Otherwise, they are sending the message that their work is for able-bodied people only. Jesse Thorn stated that he was willing to revisit his decision not to provide transcripts in the future. So it’s very important that Max Fun fans let him know: we care about accessibility! We want to be able to share the shows we love with disabled friends and family. We want transcripts! Sign to show the folks at Max Fun that a truly accessible, inclusive network is something we care about!

Please sign and reblog! Share on facebook and twitter too if you can!

(also, please let me know if there are any accessibility issues with this site, i’ve never used this platform before. thanks, y’all, you’re my favorites.)

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how to use youtube to auto-generate a podcast transcript

i came up with this method because i was working on a transcript but i type slowly and have auditory processing disorder, so it was VERY slow going. several people have told me that they would like to help transcription projects but that they are deaf/hoh so they don’t think they would be of much help. generating these auto transcripts for hearing people to edit is one way these people can help make podcasts accessible!!

youtube’s auto-caption tool is by no means perfect, but it’s improved a lot since its implementation! podcasts tend to have very clean audio with minimal crosstalk and background noise, which makes them even better for this compared to a lot of videos on youtube. the transcript i got using this method was about 80% accurate. it will yield a big block of text with no line breaks or punctuation, which should then be edited by hand. it still takes a while but can save you a lot of time in creating a finished transcript, especially if you have hearing problems like i do. all you need is a youtube account and microsoft word (this may work with other word processors as long as they have an advanced find and replace tool, but i have not tested it.)

step-by-step instructions with screenshots below the cut!

first upload the file to youtube using tunestotube. this will automatically convert the mp3 to a video. 

if you don’t use youtube as a creator, you may have to verify your account using your mobile number so that you can upload videos longer than 15 minutes. to do this, go here and follow the steps.

once your video is uploaded, it’ll take around 20-30 minutes to generate the captions. go do something else while you wait.

when you come back, click on the “...” icon below your video on the video page, and then select “Open transcript” from the pop up menu:

this will open a box with the transcript and timestamps in it. copy and paste this whole thing into a word document!

now you want to clean this text!!! it’ll look something like this at this point

you don’t want those timestamps or line breaks in there, so we’ll get rid of those with the find and replace tool. first, click the drop down box next to “find” in the toolbar and select “advanced find.” 

this will bring up a box that looks like this 

type “([0-9])” into the “find what” field and make sure you check “use wildcards.” leave the “replace with” field blank and click “replace all” to remove the digits in the timestamps.

next, type a colon “:” into “find” and uncheck “use wildcards.” click “replace all” again to remove all those colons.

now the timestamps are gone and your text looks like this:

you want to get rid of those line breaks! in the advanced find box, select the drop down box labelled “special” and then select “paragraph mark” from the menu that opens

type a space into the “replace” box so that you don’t end up with a bunch of words running together, and then click “replace all”

there you go!!!! now you can go through this cleaned text and add line breaks and attribution tags and fix mistakes. this transcript is not perfect by any stretch, but it goes a long way toward creating a readable transcript quickly, especially if you’re like me and type slowly and have auditory processing problems. go forth and make podcasts accessible!!!!!!! 

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@ podcast creators:

please don’t make transcripts of your podcast something that is either only available to donors or has otherwise has to be paid for.

deaf people want to enjoy media too. hard of hearing people want to enjoy media too. people with auditory processing disorders want to enjoy media too.

disabled people shouldn’t have to pay money to enjoy media that abled people would be able to enjoy for free.

and if you want to think of this from a money perspective, then think of how many supporters, how many more listeners you would have tuning into your podcast and buying your merch if you let your transcripts be free.

you already have them. people are going to support you anyway. don’t alienate disabled people from your media for money. I said it earlier and I’ll say it again.

disabled people shouldn’t have to pay money to enjoy media that abled people would be able to enjoy for free.