As more people become health-conscious and invest more in their overall well-being all over the world, the health and fitness industry continue to thrive. On-demand fitness services, such as online workout subscriptions and streaming apps, are becoming increasingly popular.
However, to make these on-demand workouts truly inclusive and accessible to all users, the importance of closed captions cannot be underestimated. Closed captions provide a way for deaf and hard-of-hearing individuals to access audio content by displaying the caption text of the spoken audio on screen.
In this post, we’ll look at the importance of closed captions for on-demand fitness services, and why providing them is essential to make workouts accessible and inclusive for all users, including basketball players.
Why Closed Captions Are Important?
Here are just a few of the reasons why providing you should add captions to your on-demand fitness video file:
Accessibility for Viewers Who Are Deaf or Hard of Hearing
Research indicates that there are more than 430 million individuals globally who need rehabilitation because of hearing loss that disables them. Closed captioning makes workouts more accessible and inclusive to those who are deaf or hard of hearing, and allows them to participate in the same activities as their peers.
People who are deaf or hard of hearing may not be able to participate in many classes at traditional gyms. This is because these classes are usually led by a trainer who gives verbal instructions, making it impossible for those with hearing loss to understand.
Many people may not watch the content of brands that don’t provide closed captions. By not offering closed captioning, brands exclude millions of people and miss out on the opportunity to reach more potential customers. Hence, for hard-of-hearing viewers, the best option is to have closed captions for on-demand workouts.
Improved Video’s SEO Performance
Videos have titles and descriptions, but search bots cannot see the video content itself. Search engines can only read the text because they cannot watch videos. Captioning your online video provides a searchable text version that includes relevant keywords for search engines to index, which can improve the visibility of your video. These keywords are included in the closed caption files.
Adding a closed caption file or subtitle file to your video track helps search engines understand its content better, which can lead to higher rankings for more keywords and improved discoverability.
Promoting Inclusivity to a Global Audience
Our world is a truly interconnected space where the power of connection knows no bounds. With ubiquitous access to video content facilitated by internet connections, brands can now reach global audiences – from all over the planet! As an ever-changing landscape requires dynamic strategies, companies need to ensure their content remains accessible and engaging for international viewers too.
Creating captions prior to a video upload can simplify the process of translating your content to multiple languages, which can broaden your audience’s reach. You can even add multilingual captions to the same video, allowing viewers to switch between languages depending on their preferences.
Easy Access to Work-Out Videos in Quiet Environments
For those who prefer working out at home or in other quiet settings, such as a library or office, closed captions are incredibly helpful. Listening to the audio track out loud can be disruptive and distracting to others, but with closed captions, viewers can watch videos without any sound. Captions generally allow members to mute their devices and work out to music without any sound.
In addition, captions can enhance the viewing experience of your video when the sound is not accessible. For example, viewers may not be able to hear the audio because of technical difficulties or because their device does not have a speaker. In these cases, closed captions can provide the necessary information and instructions without sound, thereby increasing video accessibility.
Increased User Engagement
Although adding captions to videos is often used as an accommodation for viewers with disabilities, many people who do not have hearing loss also enjoy using them. Because of the extra information provided by captions, viewers can more easily follow and understand complex instructions. This helps to keep users engaged and makes them more likely to complete their workouts.
Closed captions also help members who are multi-tasking or catching up on past workouts. By having text to read along with, viewers don’t have to pause their workouts or rewind the video to understand what the instructor is saying. This makes it easier for viewers to complete a workout at their own pace and convenience.
Closed Captioning – The Way to Improved Workout Experiences
Ultimately, closed captions provide a great way to reach audiences that may have been previously excluded. From increased SEO performance and user engagement to extended access to video content in quiet environments, brands can reap the many benefits of closed captioning by improving the workout experience for all.
If you’re interested in enhancing your viewer experience and reaching more viewers on a global scale, then closed captioning should be one of the first steps you take when creating content. Doing so before you upload videos can not only increase user engagement but will also promote inclusion and accessibility for all!
What are the three types of captions?
Different types of captions can vary based on their appearance, accessibility method, and information provided. These types are closed captions, open captions, and live captioning.
Closed captioning on video files is the most common type of captioning, providing viewers with an on/off option to view the text. This type of captioning, often contained in an SRT file, is usually used for pre-recorded videos or television shows and can be accessed using a remote control or other device-specific options. This improves the experience of most viewers, especially those who are deaf or hard on hearing.
