3 tips for making your meetings more accessible and inclusive with speech to text
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Over the past decade, many Western nations have developed and implemented mandatory standards to improve web content accessibility for a host of public organizations. For example, the European Union established the Web Accessibility Directive at the end of 2016. This document laid down a handful of requirements for public sector websites and apps, ensuring greater access to all people. And this is only one example of mandatory accessibility requirements.
These regulatory changes have left many organizations scrambling to develop solutions that will make their content and data more accessible to those who need it. This includes those with physical disabilities and impairments, deafness, hearing loss, mental disabilities, and others. So, how can public sector organizations improve accessibility for those who fall into these categories, and others? One of the most fundamental ways is by transcribing and archiving all council and public sector meetings. And that is where Scriptix can come in.
Scriptix can empower governments and organizations in the public sector to offer a more inclusive experience for their constituents. Our web-based tool can quickly and accurately transcribe your meetings, making it possible to add subtitles to video recordings and to create an archive. Making these meetings public and accessible isn’t just mandatory for many public sector organizations. It’s a sure way to build greater trust with those who depend on your services.
But this only scratches the surface of how public sector organizations can make their meetings more inclusive. There are dozens of ways to go above and beyond mandatory requirements. And many of them only require a small change here and there. So, if you’re ready to make your public sector meetings more inclusive and accessible, then read on to discover three tips you can begin implementing today.
Tip #1: Meetings should be accessible while they’re ongoing
If essential information isn’t available to your workers and constituents, you could be in violation of mandatory accessibility requirements. But that’s not the only danger in lacking accessibility. It will also undercut your efforts to build trust and cooperation. People need to know what’s going on in your organization.
So, what does this accessibility look like when applied to council meetings?
First, you’ll want to make sure that your meetings are accessible while they’re being conducted. This means that you should consider including a video option for anyone not able to make the meeting in-person. Video conferencing platforms like Zoom make it easy to involve people in a meeting even if they aren’t physically present.
This is particularly helpful for local governments, since they can invite the public to witness council meetings virtually. This is a great way to involve more of the people that are affected by the decisions made there.
And if you really want to maximize accessibility, you’ll have the video of your meeting subtitled in real time. While this might seem unnecessary, it serves an important purpose. It ensures that any stakeholders with hearing disabilities can still participate. By making your meetings available via video and having them subtitled, you’ll make sure that no one is left out. And you’ll instill greater confidence and trust within your team.
With Scriptix you can create full transcriptions of your recorded meetings, and you can have subtitles generated automatically. Unlike many other speech-to-text solutions, Scriptix becomes more adept at accurately transcribing your videos as it’s fed content.
Our custom models will ensure every syllable is correct. And it even has the power to translate things into different languages, so you can give everyone access to the information they need.
Tip #2: Meetings should be accessible after they’re complete
When you take advantage of video conferencing software to boost the accessibility of ongoing meetings, you’re also setting yourself up to enjoy greater accessibility after the fact. How? By turning those recorded meetings into a video or written archive that can be accessed at any time in the future.
This will benefit your workers and constituents in a variety of ways. For instance, if someone is unable to make it to a meeting, you can quickly send them a recording so they won’t miss out on anything.
Also, if there’s ever a question about anything that took place during a particular meeting, you can quickly and easily pull it up and see everything that was said. And if you use a transcription software like Scriptix to create subtitles for your meetings, you’ll even be able to search your entire archive for specific words and phrases. This is a radically transparent approach to conducting meetings that will boost trust and confidence like nothing else.
This is especially important for those in the public sector, since they have a higher level of accountability with the public. By using Scriptix to subtitle and record all of your meetings, you’ll give the public a more transparent understanding of what’s going on behind the scenes.
Meetings take valuable time that you and your organization could spend on other things. This is why it’s essential for you to make sure that your meetings are carefully planned and organized. What all does this entail?
- Be certain that your meeting has a clear purpose. If you can’t articulate at least one reason why this meeting is necessary, don’t have it. Meetings without purpose will only muddy the water for your staff and yourself.
- Create a complete, easy-to-follow meeting agenda. One of the best ways to improve the effectiveness and efficiency of your meetings is to use an agenda. Don’t let other issues or questions distract you from the reasons you’re meeting. Instead, let the agenda be your guide.
- Don’t go over. Always have a clear starting and ending time for your meetings. Without definite boundaries, your meetings will become monsters that steal you and your members’ time and hinder productivity.
Taking the time to plan your meeting will make things go more smoothly. But that’s not the only benefit of planning out your meetings. It will also ensure that the transcriptions of your meetings are easy to follow for all interested parties. This allows your organization to offer greater accessibility and inclusivity when it comes to the records of your meetings.
Thanks to Scriptix, making your meetings more inclusive has never been easier. Using our speech to text solution, you can create subtitles in real time, send out meeting recordings and transcriptions after the meeting is over, and create an archive of past meetings for browsing and searching. These are more than mere conveniences. They’re the first steps toward a growing commitment to accessibility.
As your workers experience more inclusive meetings, they’ll intuitively move in a more inclusive direction with the rest of their work. So, while creating great meetings is only one small step. It’s a step with lasting, far-reaching repercussions. You can’t take it soon enough.
Yes! Many regions of the world have mandatory accessibility requirements that must be met. One of the easiest ways to do this is by recording those meetings and creating transcriptions of them using speech-to-text software like Scriptix. This will allow you, your workers, and your constituents to review the contents of past meetings quickly and easily.
By recording your meetings, you’ll enjoy a number of benefits, including increased accessibility. With automatically generated real time subtitles, those who have hearing disabilities or who are attending virtually from noisy environments will be able to participate in your meetings without difficulty. And thanks to Scriptix, creating subtitles in real time is a simple process.
Recording and captioning your council and other meetings doesn’t just offer benefits while they’re ongoing. It also gives you the ability to make those meetings more accessible to the public. You can create a searchable archive of videoed meetings so that your constituents can quickly find the information they’re looking for.
Absolutely! If a disagreement comes up about something that was said or done during a meeting, the records can be reviewed quickly and easily. This allows you to deal with problems before they become overwhelming.
Planning your meeting is essential for a successful, productive meeting. Without purpose, an agenda, and clear boundaries, your meetings are destined to get off track and become distraction traps. Good meetings begin with good planning. And planning your meetings should always begin by putting a plan in place to subtitle, record, and archive those meetings using speech-to-text software like Scriptix.io. That way, your meetings are available to everyone who needs them from the moment they begin.