Apple Podcasts gets transcripts and ASL gets botched on popular poster (SBLTN Lab Notes 053)

Apple Podcasts automates transcripts, ASL is wrong in Echo promotion, and National Parks use billboards as protest

IN THE MARGINS

Do they teach Home Economics in public schools anymore? (U.S. or otherwise). Someone told me the newer version is called “Family and Consumer Science”. Those classes were fun and actually taught real life skills and about vocational jobs (manual trades like electrical work, plumbing, carpentry, textiles, and welding). The class I took taught cooking, sewing, auto mechanics, shop like woodworking and light construction, and writing a check (back when that was relevant). I guess modern Home Ec would be digital literacy, financial management and investment, entrepreneurship, community involvement, etc.

❓ QUESTION: What “life skills” do you think a course like this should teach students?

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ACCESSIBILITY

All Apple Podcasts now come with transcripts

Apple automatically generates transcripts after a new episode is published. We know most humans aren’t fans of friction so making digital accessibility a part of media publishing is a big step toward taking that responsibility off individuals.

Some more positives about this:

• Chapters - When an episode includes chapters, the transcript will use the chapter titles as section headers

• Speaker Names - Any time the speaker changes, their name will be displayed

• Language support is increasing - Currently supported: English, Danish, Dutch, Finnish, French, German, Italian, Norwegian, Portuguese, Spanish, and Swedish. Transcripts can be accessed in over 170 countries and regions.

• Editable - Apple’s auto-generated transcripts can be edited. But it seems you need Apple Podcasts Connect (yet another platform?) and you have to submit the updated transcript by linking the new file in a RSS feed - which might not be easy for non-techy people.

• Users can provide their own transcripts via VTT or SRT files. I like that they use the labels "Automatically generated” or "Provided by <Show Name>” so users can gauge their own trust in the accuracy.

Image credit: Apple

A few things to note:

• Transcripts can help boost Search Engine Optimization (people finding your content on the internet) but I wasn’t able to find any of the content from transcripts I tested within a Google search. I wonder if they are only within the Apple Podcasts app? 🤔

• If portions of the episode change with dynamically inserted audio, Apple Podcasts will not display the segments of the audio that have changed since the original transcription. Considering the reliance on advertising revenue in podcasts, this creates a gap. I don’t know if it’s possible but maybe they can create a way for users to re-transcribe just segments of an episode.

Transcripts are not only great for people who are deaf or hard of hearing, but they are also inclusive for people with auditory processing disorders, someone learning a new language, and anyone who prefers written content over audio.

Depending on the interactivity of where a transcript is hosted, having this full text means someone can search for a specific phrase or jump straight to the content most relevant to them by clicking on a hyperlinked timestamp.

I’m looking forward to more audio-centric platforms taking these steps toward digital accessibility (without the threat of being sued being their main motivator).

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DIVERSITY & INCLUSION

What the H(eck)?

I’m hard of hearing. My American Sign Language (ASL) is rusty at best so while I currently prefer verbal communication, it’s still so great to see it represented in mass media.

Marvel (the comic book peeps turned blockbuster film jauggernauts) were promoting a streaming show called Echo that has a deaf/hard of hearing protagonist named Maya Lopez. The poster has the ASL fingerspelling of “Echo”. However, it’s been pointed out that the “H” is incorrect and could’ve been easily fixed by consulting a fluent ASL user.

So while there might’ve been good intentions, the execution was lacking.

Image credit: Marvel

There were some defenders of this “design” choice. Some arguing that it’s creative expression. But as a CODA* Interpreter named Vera explains, the “E” and the “C” looking like they were done by different hands is graphic design but the H being rotated is just wrong. I think placing design aesthetics over functional language usage is a no-go.

Some have also argued that the H was deliberately wrong so non-ASL users could see where the thumb placement is. If so, it would just be teaching people incorrect hand positioning and defeating the purpose of getting people to learn ASL. Not to mention if the intent was inclusion through representation, you need to ACCURATELY represent someone.

I’m a HUGE fan of progress over perfection, especially for people learning something new or small organizations with limited capacity. So while I appreciate the effort to integrate accessibility and clever storytelling into design, with their budget I’d expect verification before releasing something like this at such large scale.

*CODA: Child of a Deaf Adult

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ART & DESIGN

National Parks use design to fight back against layoffs and budget cuts

U.S. President Trump’s administration are just going willy nilly with efforts to “cut federal spending,” - much of which is happening through the Elon Musk-led Department of Government Efficiency (D.O.G.E.). These cuts included major layoffs, budget cuts, and rescinded job offers across the U.S. National Park and National Forest Services.

To protest funding cuts, pro-labor news outlet and advocacy nonprofit More Perfect Union has launched a multimillion-dollar campaign by erecting 300 billboards in more than 40 cities across the country. The billboards show the notoriously gorgeous vistas of various national park sites, designed to resemble a classic postcard. But instead of a “wish you were here” sentiment, the billboards include statements like: “Rocky Mountain National Park: Now with reduced staff,” and “Death Valley National Park: Heat deaths rise, safety staff cut.” All of the billboards include an emblem that reads: “Made possible by DOGE.”

Image credit: More Perfect Union

“We want to start a conversation about the role of government today in the United States, and the role of government we want,” Faiz Shakir, executive director of More Perfect Union, concluded.

It’s possible that these billboards could inspire a longer-term effort to protect public services like the NPS however, I can’t help but wonder if the millions spent on the billboards could’ve been used to establish a fund to rehire people or a grant to support volunteers? Or maybe donated to the parks for other needs?

Is this an “effective” marketing campaign? In one sense, yes since the stated goal was to "start conversation". These could certainly do that BUT it’s a gamble and a metric that isn’t easily tracked. ANd is a conversation what's really needed? Does a conversation actually move the needle or have a positive, lasting impact? Is there another action that would've been more helpful or positively impactful for the parks and employees themselves?

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Signing off from the Starship SBLTN,
Laneen (Pronouns: she/they)

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HEARD IN THE HALLWAYS

The Soapbox Project is hiring for “Seattle Community Lead” job position. The deadline to apply is May 15 at midnight PST.

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🎧 Listening: We're all eating each other by Juliet Ivy (song on Spotify)

💬 Quote: “Consider the fact that Google’s parent company is worth more than $1.6 trillion, and the value of the entire US newspaper industry today is only around $20 billion. If Google wanted to, it could easily purchase every remaining paper in America and run them as nonprofits, thereby ensuring that local news doesn’t die out, and ensuring a continuing flow of news content for themselves, and earning a lot of good PR by appearing to be something less than vultures that have sucked journalism dry and thrown its corpse off a cliff. But they don’t do that.”—Hamilton Nolan, a journalist who writes about labor, on Google and Facebook blocking news content in Canada in response to legislation requiring the Big Tech giants to pay fees to local news outlets for their content

🖊️ Word of the Day: Whippersnapper: a diminutive, insignificant, or presumptuous person. Example: "Some young whippersnapper piped up with a pointless comment"

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