Live Captioning: An Asset to your Political Campaign

by Kimberly Shea, CRC, @saidshea

Yes, you CAN push live captions to Facebook Live along with other social media platforms.

Let’s be clear about this. We have the knowledge, experience, and capabilities to provide your on-site audience with live captions while simultaneously streaming captions to your social media platforms. We can achieve this at almost any venue, under almost any circumstance. It’s what we do: Take your message from anywhere to everywhere! The reliable human element and our ability to accurately facilitate the clear communication of your message are what set us apart from artificial intelligence in the lane of accessibility and communication access. This is our lane. It’s our expertise.

It doesn’t matter how loudly you speak from the campaign trail if your message does not reach the people.

Is your message clear?  Is your message even reaching your target audience? In short, is your content accessible?

One of the most important things in any campaign is your message. As a candidate, you can pound the pavement, exhaust your voice, and share your goals;  but if your content is not both accessible and inclusive, what message is your audience actually receiving?  Live Captioning will not only help ensure that your message is clearly conveyed but will also exponentially expand your reach.

There is an ongoing plea for political candidates to caption their content during live events.

In today’s social media-driven world, campaigns rely on communication, on all people receiving a clear message in real time. Accurate captioning is a critical factor in retaining the attention, interest, support, and ultimately vote of your potential constituency. There is no reason to fail at inclusion when there is an easy and professional solution available at your fingertips: human-generated captions.

The Internet is full of information … and misinformation. Unfortunately, “Live captioning is not allowed” or “not possible” is a regular reply that @livecaptioners has seen repeated again and again on Twitter. After seeing a constant flow of inaccurate responses to event captioning requests, there is a need for clarification regarding this misinformation. “Live captioning is not allowed” or “not possible with current technology” are inaccurate statements. This is simply a lack of understanding and knowledge regarding captioning services and communication access options.

Give your audience what they’re asking for.

You cannot overlook the staggering statistic that “85 percent of video views happen with the sound off.” When people watching your videos on Facebook will watch while muted, and approximately 90% of content that has captions is watched in its entirety, live captions are critical to your goals. You have three seconds to grab the attention of your viewers. Don’t waste it.

When communities are no longer an afterthought, inclusion organically becomes a natural priority for any event.

Providing live captions at town halls and on the campaign trail while simultaneously livestreaming those captions to your social media platforms extends the reach of your message. There are communities that many fail to reach because campaigns do not truly understand the facts on accessibility accommodations. It is allowed. It is possible. It is deserved.

Seek consult from experts in the field before denying accessibility to the very people you are trying to reach.

Live captioning may have been designed for the deaf and hard-of-hearing community, but modern studies prove captioning benefits many more, including those with auditory processing disorder, autism, ADHD, English language learners, and more. In addition, a large population of individuals without a disability prefer to have captioning during live events because it is helpful if there are distractions or noise disruptions in a crowded environment.

People want a chance to receive your message. All you have to do is give it to them.

For assistance in expanding your reach and taking your message to the masses, call Breaking Barriers Captioning at 469-328-7151.