When you transcribe and translate your videos, do you also indicate things like sound effects, music? I've seen it done both ways and not sure which is preferred. This is for a corporate manufacturing YouTube library.
ASKED BY · Brian Carney · WHEATON, ILLINOIS · 23 OCT 2026 · ▶ 00:44:46
Courtney emphasized that captions should convey meaning to someone hard of hearing by indicating relevant sounds (e.g., 'forklift backing up') with contextual description rather than clinical listing.
Jason suggested including sound effects that are intentionally mixed and important to understanding the content, but not background elements unless critical to the story.
Jason referenced WCAG Global Accessibility Standards as the guiding principle for making video accessible to those who cannot hear, bringing hard-of-hearing viewers into the full experience.
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From the transcript.
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44:42original speed. We're off the rails. Next question. Sorry. This one's coming in from Brian Carney in Wheaton, Illinois. When you transcribe and translate your videos, do you also indicate things like sound effects, music? I've seen it done both ways and not sure which is preferred. This is for a corporate manufacturing YouTube library. As long as you say indistinct chatter, I think that's my favorite thing to see in captions, indistinct chatter.
45:15Jason? I feel like the first ASCII character I ever saw was closed captions. That little musical, like, what was it, like triplet eighth note, just a tiny little glide. I don't know. Anything that you have intentionally put into the mix that isn't just your background, yeah, lively chatter in background or – you're not going to put stuff like musical sting arc, right?
45:44But like if there's an important thing like you're hearing a computer whir in the background for some reason, I don't know. I feel like this might come down to the difference between closed captions and – I'm not sure. Sure. Like it really, if you're putting a sound effect in because it's important for understanding what you're seeing, then put it in. That's, there's my rule.
46:07And that's just it. If the goal is that you're trying to make this understandable for someone who is hard of hearing, then what is it, what matters to the context of your story? It's not just like, it's not just music. It's dramatic music. It's happy music. It's sad music, whatever, however you want to say it. But there's a little bit of an art to that, that it's not a clinical, just very straightforward, you know, stinger sound effect.
46:38No, you're using that as a way to tell your story to someone who's not able to hear that soundtrack. If it's corporate manufacturing video and it's important to hear that the forklift is backing up because that's what the person is looking at, then it's going to go in there. there. But is it important for every little sound, every little thing that you put? Probably
47:02not. So it's what's relevant to the story because you can also overwhelm if you try to be all-encompassing. Jason? Yeah, of course. I just had to look it up. And there is a standards body that is very adamant about this. That is the Global Accessibility Standards. And if you want to to look it up. It's WCAG, and they have ample training on, you know, basically having the
47:25hard of hearing or those who just don't listen with any sound and bringing them, you know, right back into the experience, which is kind of what it's all about. Next question. Guy Cochran in Seattle, Washington is asking, what do you think of the new Rode Wireless micro colors the micro colors is it is it just a very light tint Alexander yeah so these are the they actually offer quite a variety of colors you got
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