This voiceover was done in one take with all imperfections included - so you may hear some background noise or me stumbling over my words.

Let me set the scene.

I’m at my computer, cup of coffee in hand, deep in research mode. I’m diving into a topic that hasn’t had a lot of studies done on it yet, so resources are limited. I find that a podcast I’ve really loved in the past has an episode on the topic - score!

However, I struggle with hitting play.

I will often only listen to podcasts when I’m fine with missing most of the information and having it leave my brain pretty quickly. A fleeting impact on topics that spark joy.

You see, I don’t learn very well from audio. I just don’t absorb information that way. Taking notes can help, but I need a visual, too, something to latch onto. Or else my eyes and mind will wander and I will get lost in whatever daydream I have and all of a sudden, 15 minutes will have gone by and I will not have learned a single thing.

So to help, I sought out a transcript to the episode. Wouldn’t you know it, this podcast has a transcript tab on their website!! Love to see it. Until I got to the page…

Each transcript was paywalled for about $3-5 a piece. Or, you could sign up to their Patreon to access transcripts for $5/month.

I was genuinely taken aback. Why would someone paywall this resource? Transcripts should be made for accessibility, not for profit.

I did email them and the conversation basically ended with them saying, paraphrasing here, “We put a lot of time, effort, and resources into making our transcripts proper and easy to read, so if you feel like our efforts are worth it, consider throwing $5 our way to access the transcripts through Patreon.”

*Sigh*

Since none of my emails were really landing, I just left their email on read and abandoned my mission.

I still haven’t listened to that podcast episode and at this point, I might never because this whole exchange left me feeling a bit sour.

But, I wanted to explore this topic a bit more in depth. I think this is something that a lot of people may not think about as being an issue. And some of you might disagree with me and be thinking, “Well, they should be paid for their work. Why do you feel entitled to these transcripts for free?”

So should transcripts be free for everyone? Let’s start from the top.

Who are transcripts for?

Why are transcripts important? Why do we need them? Who uses transcripts?

Primarily, transcripts are created for those who are deaf or hard of hearing. Podcasts are incredibly inaccessible to this audience. They’re not like videos where you can turn on captions or subtitles. There really is nothing but audio.

Transcripts can also help those with different learning styles. Some people learn better through reading than through audio (that’s me). They also help people consume content when they’re in loud places and can’t hear the audio, or where they can’t play audio but they can read (ex. forgot their headphones and are at the library).

Is it a podcasters job to predict and accommodate for every scenario possible? I mean, no. But you’d think podcasters would want as many people able to access their content as possible.

This is a similar concept as to why people caption their Instagram stories. A lot of people don’t look at stories with their audio on and captions help them and those who are hard of hearing or deaf. It’s a win-win.

And while a story is much shorter than a whole podcast episode so therefore more easy to caption, the principle is the same.

So why does this responsibility fall onto podcasters?

Unfortunately, not all major podcasting players provide transcripts. And when they do, they’re not very good.

Spotify does not provide transcripts for every podcast or every episode. So they’re not reliable yet.

Apple Podcasts does provide transcripts but you can only access them through the Apple Podcasts app which you can only access if you have an iPhone or an iPad, which not everyone does. These are also auto-generated and come along with all the problems that AI transcription tools have so if a creator does not edit them, they’re not great. Kind of on par with YouTube captions - better than nothing but would be great if people took the time to edit them.

Another option is to transcribe the episode yourself using a transcription tool like Otter.ai. This again, is not perfect and will have mistakes. If a deaf person does this on their own, they will have no audio to be able to listen to and fix the mistakes which might make reading it feel nonsensical if too many words and/or phrases are transcribed incorrectly.

In a perfect world, every podcast app would auto generate transcripts perfectly. But that is not the world we live in currently. And I don’t know if we’ll ever get there because, by and large, human problems require human solutions.

So I think if a podcaster has enough of an audience and enough time and resources to provide transcripts, they should do so, and for free.

“But, Amy, do you know how much work transcripts are??? They take FOREVER, are so boring to create, or cost money to outsource.”

Yep. I do know how much work they can be. For my course, most of my videos were scripted and then recorded, so the scripts doubled as transcripts. But, for about 1 video every unit, they were unscripted walkthrough videos, all of which I had to create transcripts for after the fact.

And it was boring and painful and I procrastinated more than I should’ve (in my defense I was burnt out so I pushed it off, but they still should’ve gotten done sooner than they did 😅)

Thankfully, tools exist to make these easier. While transcription tools aren’t perfect, they’re a great starting point. I used a mix of Otter.ai and Premier Pro to transcribe (I found Premiere worked better for me, they had nicer formatting and were more accurate) and then I watched my video at 1.5x - 2x speed and double checked the transcript against what I was hearing.

I had to pause multiple times to edit, but overall, a 45 minute video took me about 45 minutes to finish transcribing.

Doing one per day worked well for me. And if I was releasing this content weekly, like a podcast, I’d just add a buffer day to do the transcript before posting.

Is it extra work? Yes.

Does it kinda suck to have to do extra work to release a free episode? Or, in my case, do extra work and have no increase to my course price? A little bit.

Because in the system we live, time is money.

Why do something for free when you could charge for it?

My answer is because we should care about other people. But we could be here all day if I fully dive into that rant.

And maybe that’s too vague of an answer.

A lot of people disagree with me. I’ve seen course price calculators tell you to charge more if your course includes transcripts and captions for video. Which I wholeheartedly disagree with.

To me, transcripts are a non-negotiable. They should not increase the price of a product.

To illustrate my point, allow me to share this comparison that my friend, Laneen, who writes SBLTN Lab Notes here on Substack, shared with me:

You wouldn't charge a wheelchair user for a ramp and let others use the stairs for free, so why is digital access treated differently?

SAY IT LOUDER FOR THE PEOPLE IN THE BACK.

Can you imagine if there was a little gate or something in front of a ramp to a building that only opened when you paid $5 to use it? Think parking garage but for a ramp to a building.

It would be so dehumanizing, wouldn’t it? Like your existence in this world in a wheelchair is soooo inconvenient to other people that you have to pay THEM just to set foot in their business or building?

And ramps cost money to build, too! They’re not free. But business and building owners fork over the money for it (I mean, definitely because they’re required to a lot of the time. Not out of the goodness of their hearts, so maybe not a fair comparison, but the analogy stands).

And I’m not saying we should legislate and require every podcast episode to have transcripts, but we could force the hand of the bigger companies to provide auto generated transcripts, because again, they’re better than nothing.

We could force Spotify to have transcripts.

We could force Apple to provide transcripts on their Apple Podcasts website, in iTunes, and wherever else without requiring a person to own an Apple product to access the dang transcripts.

And then these platforms could prompt podcasters to look over and edit the transcripts before allowing them to be published. It wouldn’t result in 100% of podcast transcripts being edited perfectly, some would bypass it, but the reminder would help!

Instead, people with disabilities have to continually fight and advocate for themselves, educate other people on their needs, and then sometimes end up feeling shitty and entitled because all they did was ask for an accommodation that they needed.

If you have no disabilities, have you ever been temporarily disabled because of a surgery, injury, or something else?

And all of a sudden realized how inaccessible the world is to everyone who isn’t perfectly able-bodied?

I have. After I had open heart surgery at the age of 22, I couldn’t dress myself. I couldn’t tie my own shoes. I couldn’t open most doors and had to rely on the automatic push buttons or have other people come with me to help.

I told my professors I could not physically carry my book to class because the weight of everything would be too much for the first few weeks of classes and asked if that would be okay with them.

And I felt so dramatic for asking for help even though I was told by doctors I needed it. When I was staying in the hospital after my surgery, I asked a nurse to open my door for me and he literally opened it a crack then asked me if I could open the door the rest of the way. Excuse me???

No wonder anyone advocating for themselves has to jump through hoops and mental hurdles to even ask for assistance.

I felt like a burden. I felt like I was being whiny. I felt like I wasn’t trying hard enough. And the bulk of my recovery was only 6 weeks.

I cannot imagine what it would be like to continually advocate for yourself over your entire life and be constantly met with a society that is so cold and unaccommodating to you. And not only that, but actively telling you that you’re the problem.

And why are you the problem? Because someone has to spend extra energy or resources to help you with no compensation in return.

Profit over everything, am I right? (Yes, I know we live in a capitalistic hell hole and a lot of us are just trying to survive, the problem is systemic and I’m not calling any one person out.)

Providing transcripts for free can still benefit your business.

If I were starting a podcast, I’d set up my website so that my simple text transcripts would be published as blog posts.

I’d make sure they were formatted to be easy to read and maybe add in some images, if applicable!

These would be HUGE boosts to your SEO. Google loves a good blog post, especially if you name your episodes with on point keywords.

This would not only help capture the market looking for podcasts, but those just looking for information on whatever subject you provide content on. It would probably result in more listeners, too.

And then, you could take these transcripts and make them into something more.

You see, this podcast was charging $5/transcript because they had turned the transcripts into full PDFs with extra resources, questions, and space for your own notes. But those aren’t transcripts.

They’re something extra. Which you can sell after you provide the transcripts for free. Because the product in that digital resource is all the extra stuff.

This is very similar to strategies a lot of business owners currently use: give away something for free, offer those that want more than the basics an option to upgrade.

I give away a lot of free information about green web design and my upsell is always into my course.

Designers often offer audits for low cost that sometimes turns into a whole redesign either right after or down the road.

Marketing experts offer pick-my-brain consultations that can lead to more done-for-you services.

None of this is new. It’s just not as widely used for podcasts, from what I’ve seen. A lot of podcasts make their money from ads. And that’s fine, too! But this can help create another source of income.

And if you create these digital download resources, you can upsell them at the bottom of each transcript-turned-blog-post.

But honestly, what’s really important here, is to remember we all come from different backgrounds and have different abilities.

If we create from a standpoint of caring about others and wanting others to have the best experience possible, if we lead with kindness and understanding, we will start to naturally accommodate many more people.

I think we also need to approach each other without assuming underlying malice. A lot of people miss accessibility features not because they hate disabled people, but because they genuinely didn’t know better. And once people know better, they usually start doing better.

Digital accessibility is an amazing place to start. It’s low cost and it’s easy to begin with a few basic accommodations. This can include providing transcripts to audio if you don’t already!

It can also mean providing well-written alt text, adding image descriptions and ID’s where alt text isn’t enough, having enough contrast between colors to make text and images legible, and so many more smaller areas.

If you’re looking to learn more about accessibility I recommend checking out these wonderful people and what they’re doing:

• As I said before, take a look through Laneen’s SBLTN Lab Notes here on Substack. They write about not only accessibility, but diversity and intersectionality as well.

• Take a peek at Sumi’s website and maybe subscribe to their newsletter (bottom of the page that’s linked). Sumi helps solopreneurs and small organizations prioritize diversity, equity, and inclusion in their business.

There’s tons more resources out there but these two are doing and writing amazing things! Their newsletters are a great place to start.

Before I end off with this post, I want to ask you: Do you think podcasts should offer transcripts for free to everyone?

A) Absolutely! Accessibility is important.
B) No, they should be paid for their work.
C) Maybe it should be free to some but not others?

Comment below or hit reply with your answer: A, B, or C, or whatever other thoughts you have!

If you’re interested in learning more about green web design, check out these resources:

7 Days to a Greener Website Challenge: 100% free! Once you sign up, each day, you’ll get a task emailed to you with a video walkthrough + PDF guide to help. Works for any website platform. DIYers and designers welcome! No coding knowledge needed.

Green Web Design Course: Learn everything from the impact of the web on the planet to how to optimize all the details on a site. With seven modules, the curriculum gives a well-rounded look at what green web design is, why it’s important, and how to implement it in your work and marketing. No coding knowledge needed. Investment: $300 USD.

Thanks so much for venturing into the Blue Raspberry Patch with me! I love exploring all these sustainability and design topics in longer form and sharing little berries of info with you all. I’d be delighted if you’d join me here!