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Accessibility Toolkit for Course Materials

Podcasts General

Podcast Accessibility

Podcasts are a great tool to use in OER.  Podcasts can be used in different types of courses and for different types of users and learners.  Podcasts are great for self-paced learning, for reinforcing ideas taught in class, for flipped classrooms, for multilingual students, for including guest speakers and for providing enhanced teaching and learning environment.  If you are going to use a podcast in your OER then you need to make your podcast accessible. Not only will this allow your content to be accessible to people with disabilities it will also help you reach a wider audience.
When creating a podcast keep these things in mind:

 

How to Make Podcasts Accessible

Transcripts

Providing transcripts to your podcasts is the most important thing you can do to increase your podcast’s accessibility. In addition, many users benefit from the transcripts, not just those with a disability.  Transcripts provide users (and creators) a way to search the podcasts for specific content.  In addition, many users might want to listen and follow along reading the transcript as a way to better learn the material.  Also, users can user the transcripts to write notes etc. regarding the topic. The best way to provide a transcript is inline on the OER’s page itself, but you can also provide downloadable or linked transcripts.