More and more people are using videos to showcase their work on the web. Whether it’s a product video or a tour of your latest gallery opening, a video is an engaging way to show off your work.
However, if you’re not including closed captions in your videos, you’re missing out on a huge opportunity to reach a wider audience. In this article, we’ll discuss the benefits of closed captions for gallery videos and why you should consider adding them to your next project.
What is Closed Captioning?
Closed captioning is the process of displaying textual versions of spoken dialog and other auditory signals during a presentation. Captions are usually rendered visibly over the video image and provide a transcription of the dialog, as well as non-speech information such as the identity of speakers and, on occasion, emotions or sound effects that may be important to the plot. For accessible content, click for closed captioning services.
For deaf and hard-of-hearing viewers, closed captions allow them to follow along with a television movie or a program. For viewers who speak a different language than that in which the audio track is recorded, closed captions provide a way to understand the dialog. And for viewers in noisy environments, closed captions provide a way to follow along without having to increase the volume to a level that would be disruptive to others.
Is It Mandatory by Law?
Many countries have laws requiring that broadcasters make their programs accessible to hearing-impaired viewers, and in the United States, the federal Americans with Disabilities Act include similar provisions. Many online video platforms offer closed captioning services for their users in order to be aligned with these laws.
Closed captioning is required on all U.S. broadcast television programs and most cable programs; it is also available on many web-based video platforms such as YouTube and Vimeo. When done well, closed captioning can be an invaluable resource for viewers; when done poorly, it can be a source of frustration.
In recent years, advances in artificial intelligence have led to the development of automatic captioning systems that show promise for making the creation of high-quality captions more efficient and less expensive.
The Benefits of Closed Captions for Art Gallery Videos
As we mentioned before, one of the main benefits of closed captioning is that it makes your videos accessible to a wider audience. This is especially important for art gallery videos, as many of your potential viewers may be deaf or hard of hearing. In addition, closed captions can also help you to reach viewers who speak a different language than the one in which your video is recorded.
Another benefit of closed captioning is that it allows viewers to follow along with your video even if they are in a noisy environment. This is important for gallery videos, as many of them are shot in busy areas with a lot of background noise. By including closed captions, you can make sure that your viewers will be able to understand what is being said even if they can’t hear the audio clearly.
Finally, closed captioning can also help you to improve the SEO of your video. This is because closed captions are used by search engines to index the content of a video. By including relevant keywords in your closed captions, you can make sure that your video comes up in search results for those keywords.
Online Art Galleries Understand the Importance
Many online art galleries are now using closed captioning for their videos, among them you can find some big names like the Tate Modern, the Guggenheim, and the Metropolitan Museum of Art.
As more and more galleries adopt this practice, it’s likely that closed captioning will become the norm for art gallery videos. Moreover, as artificial intelligence gets better at generating high-quality captions automatically, the cost and effort of closed captioning will continue to decrease, making it an even more attractive option for galleries.
Conclusion
As you can see, there are many good reasons to use closed captions for your art gallery videos. By including closed captions and making your videos more accessible, you can target a larger audience, improve the SEO of your video, and make sure that viewers can understand what is being said even in noisy environments. If you’re not using closed captions for your videos, we urge you to start doing so as soon as possible.
