As a company wants to get as much brand exposure as possible, it’s only natural to want to make their business appear more accessible and relatable. After all, one of the best ways to appeal to the internet masses is to appear as relatable as possible — which many companies use to their advantage through the use of video marketing.
That said, video marketing is not just about making a video, spreading it around, and being done with it. There is much more to video content than meets the eye, and if you want to go for as much accessibility as possible, it would be wise to look into audio description software.
What exactly is an audio description service?
While you might think that making video content is enough for most of the audience, there are quite a few that tend to miss out. For example, there are people with vision problems that might not necessarily see everything going on and follow quite as well as others. There are even those with no vision at all, which presents a problem if you want to give them a clearer picture of what’s going on.
After all, even going for subtitles or dubbing won’t work, as those who can barely see will only understand so much of what is happening on the screen. What audio description does is it provides an accurate description of things going on, so that those who can only listen can still keep up.
Is audio description crucial for all types of video content?
Some think that when it comes to quicker video content, there might not need to be an accurate audio description — especially for those ads where listening instead of watching still gives you the necessary information. While that might be the case, the use of audio description is often seen as going the extra mile for accessibility. Most people become loyal supporters of a company because of its accessibility. For example, a company might add braille to their brochures to help those who cannot see, which is quite similar to what audio description does for videos.
To answer whether an audio description is crucial for all types of video content, it depends on how you want to be seen. No, it isn’t crucial for five to ten-second adverts, but it’s never a bad idea to look into audio description services to make your videos more accessible to a wider audience.
The bottom line
Funny enough, even people who are not necessarily visually impaired make use of audio description in one way or another. For example, automated speech in ebooks is technically audio descriptions of books.
Many people who are too busy to watch anything use podcasts and audiobooks for a bit of multitasking. It is no stretch to say that audio description might reach an audience that has no visual impairment but prefers to listen rather than watch. It is not a mandatory thing in most cases, but it never hurts to have it as an option for companies that want to go the extra mile.
