Everywhere I go, I read…

Just the other day, a friend and I were lamenting about the fact that we have to read everything. I can’t just pop on headphones and take Cota out on a walk and listen to a podcast.

It’s really annoying, but I also don’t really want to be hearing. I know it’s such a conundrum. I do wish there was an easier way to listen to a podcast that didn’t involve large chunks of text - as if I were reading a book.

Deaf people are SUPER visual. So using illustrations, videos, GIFs, and other visuals can definitely add a bit more to your content. 

Reading can be exhausting sometimes! 

Most people don’t realize how much deaf people read. Like we READ everything. I’d like to joke that I read so much, I’m a speed reader. But really, I read a ton. I read blogs, captions on tv, captions on video, I’m reading articles, instagram posts, captions. Like I can’t just not read. 

So sometimes having something that is more visual is very appealing to the eye where we don’t have to primarily focus on reading is really nice. 

With all things being audio, it’s been challenging because we do ask for transcripts (rather than having the videos captioned) because we can get through the transcript a lot faster than if we had to watch the whole video through and follow along with captions. 

It’s also important to do a run through of the transcripts to ensure that they make sense. My biggest pet peeve is when captions are way way off from the audio. Late night tv shows are infamous for this! 

I’ll quickly glance at the tv, and I can tell in the first sentence if the timing of the captions is off. At that point, I’ll refuse to watch the rest of the show because it’s wildly distracting.