Interactive transcripts
Interactive Transcripts are a new tool for media consumption. Similar to captions or subtitles in many ways, an Interactive Transcript is displayed beside the audio or video source. As the user hears the words being spoken, the matching words in the transcript are underlined or highlighted. Doing so, greatly increases the retention of the material.[citation needed]
Benefits
At least 65% of the population are considered to be visual learners, those who absorb and recall information best by reading as opposed to listening.[1][2] Visual learners benefit significantly from reading transcripts and watching or listening instead of only listening to spoken information.
In addition it has been reported that almost 1 in 20 Americans are deaf or hard-of-hearing[3], as well as millions more around the world. Whether at work or school or home, individuals that have difficulty hearing need new ways to understand and retain the material presented.
We read nearly twice as fast as we listen, assuming we want to read every word (an author's dream but not necessarily reality).
The average American adult reads prose at 275 to 350 words per minute while most of us speak at around 150-165 wpm. Slide presentations and speeches are often at 100–120 words per minute. Auctioneers and most true Bostonians speak at 200-250 wpm.[4]
Monetization
Many sites have various forms of audio/video on their website—these same sites rely on search engines for a substantial portion of their visitors. However, search engines currently don't have the capability to know what is in a picture, movie or audio file as they are all text-based. Therefore these websites may have valuable content that search engines won't be able to know about.
The easiest solution to this problem is to for website owners with media to include transcripts on their pages. This text must be placed in the HTML of the page and not loaded dynamically via Javascript. Search engines will then be able to crawl the content and include it in their search results. This will lead to more visitors finding the relevant content they are looking for.
If the website owner utilizes advertising on their website, a corollary benefit of having a transcript accompany their media is that advertising platforms, such as Google AdWords, will be able to place relevant advertisements since the content of the media is now known.
Providers
There are various providers of Interactive Transcripts at different price points.