Accessibility in Podcasting for Hard-of-Hearing Listeners with Kellina Powell

How can you make your podcast more accessible to people who are deaf and hard of hearing? It goes without saying that we don’t know what we don’t know. When it comes to how people with auditory differences—such as those who are deaf and hard of hearing—interact with our podcasts, the only way to learn how to do better and make those episodes more accessible is to ask. And that’s exactly what this episode does.

Kellina Powell is an author and speaker who helps deaf and hard-of-hearing women express themselves with confidence in a hearing world. Tuck in your earbuds and get ready to listen and learn as Mary and Kellina discuss the nuances of engaging with podcasts as a hard-of-hearing listener. How big a role does video play? Is all the effort we put into creating transcripts paying off? Kellina weighs in with helpful transparency from first-hand experience about the accessibility questions you’ve always wanted to ask.

Learn from Kellina’s unique perspective of the audible world:

• How your microphone affects sounds picked up during recording
• The difference in how hearing and hard-of-hearing people filter ambient noise
• How we can make our transcripts more accessible to those who need them
• How to respectfully ask questions about accessibility

Links worth mentioning from the episode:

• Episode 84 “Simplify Your Workflow to Keep Your Podcasting Passion Alive with Craig Constantine” - https://www.organizedsound.ca/simplify-your-workflow-to-keep-your-podcasting-passion-alive-with-craig-constantine-episode-84/

Engage with Kellina:

• Buy Kellina’s book, “Everyday I Am Just Deaf” - https://bookshop.org/p/books/everyday-i-am-just-deaf-life-in-a-hearing-world-with-deaf-queen-boss-kellina-powell/18522433?ean=9781778112102
• Connect with Kellina - https://www.kellinaempowerment.com/

Connect with Mary!

• Leave a voice note with your feedback at https://www.speakpipe.com/VisibleVoice or email visiblevoicepodcast@gmail.com
• Get the full transcript of the episode at http://www.visiblevoicepodcast.com
• Read up on more secrets with the Visible Voice Insights Newsletter https://www.organizedsound.ca/newsletter
• To learn more or work with Mary, check out https://www.organizedsound.ca
• Link up on LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/in/marychan-organizedsound/
• Engage on Instagram @OrganizedSoundProductions https://www.instagram.com/organizedsoundproductions

Show Credits:

• Podcast audio design, engineering, and edited by Mary Chan of Organized Sound Productions
• Show notes written by Shannon Kirk of Right Words Studio
• Post-production support by Kristalee Forre of Forre You VA
• Podcast cover art by Emily Johnston of Artio Design Co.

Transcript with Audio Description:

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MARY: You don't know what you don't know. And that goes for all sorts of things, not just any podcasting. But in the world of accessibility that is especially true. We can't create an environment to support accessibility features until we understand how someone actually interacts with it. Not what all the gurus and experts are telling us, but actual people. All the good and the bad things, what works, what doesn't. This usability aspect is really important to know. 

But in podcasting, an audio medium, how accessible are they to people who are hard of hearing? How do you create podcasts that can be more accessible in an audio-focused world? For some insight, I reached out to Kellina Powell, the Deaf Queen Boss. Kellina empowers deaf and hard of hearing women to express themselves fully and be heard in the hearing world with confidence. We recorded this conversation at the height of 2024, in the summer heat. So it was really hot out where she lives in the Toronto area. And I took this opportunity to let her A, feel at ease with the tech that she wanted to use for our recording. So in this case an iPad, so she could have captions automatically since we were not using video for the recording. And then B, I also realized for you as the listener, since she's outside, you can actually hear how things are recorded and heard from her point of view. 

So you'll hear it all and I want you to hear all of it. Not all podcasts are recorded in quiet rooms. So I wanted to use this episode as a great example of what it can be like when audio is used in a natural outdoors environment versus a closed environment. You'll hear the difference, because she'll be outside and I'll be in my quiet space. So what I've done differently with this episode is the editing. I slowly faded out her side of the recording when I'm speaking, so you can hear the difference. But there were also some spots that I left in while I was speaking. So you can hear her background too, because different mics record differently and the environment you're in plays a significant role in the outcome of your audio. 

So there were spots where I was talking and her background was full of great noise. As in you could hear the wind, birds chirping, traffic in the background, and there was even a siren happening at one point. It all gets amplified when a microphone comes into play. A lot of people, for those who do have full hearing capabilities, they block out all of that stuff. Your brain knows that's background, and in that natural environment, your brain just filters it out. But with the microphone, it's recording all of that and playing it back into your headphones or your speakers. And I feel like that's how someone who is hearing impaired and uses a hearing device might actually hear the world. 

So keep that in mind when you record your podcast or have a guest on, because even someone like Craig Constantine, who was my guest from episode 84, he talked about being hard of hearing, an invisible disability that I didn't even know about, until he mentioned it on the show. So you never know who is hearing or wants to hear your show, but has a really challenging time. So I want you to listen in not only for what Kellina is saying in this episode, which is so really important to elevate accessibility in podcasts, but also for the sound itself of the episode and what role sound plays into your own podcast recordings. 

This is episode 88 with Kellina Powell on the Podcaster's Guide to a Visible Voice.

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MARY: Kellina, thank you so much for joining me on the show. 

[INTRO MUSIC ENDS]

I'm really excited to talk to you about your experience as a listener, as a guest, all the stuff for podcasting.

KELLINA : Woohoo! I'm excited to be here. Thank you so much for having me.

MARY: Okay, let's talk first about your listening experience. As a listener of podcasts, Take me through some of your struggles that happens when you're listening to podcasts.

KELLINA: So I guess I would start with is when, during COVID So during COVID it was not acceptable for people who had deaf or hard of hearing. And I think it was just because technology was very new to everybody. Not everybody knew how to be accessible at the time. And for me, when I started listening to a podcast through my cell phone, even though I had a hearing aid Bluetooth in my ears, it was really great and everything. But until I realized that it's very hard to find, like, a subtitle that can go along with or even just a description of the podcast alone and what's happening. It was very hard in the beginning because I couldn't follow through until I actually started listening to podcasts on YouTube. So that actually helped me to listen to podcasts.

MARY: I didn't even think about that aspect of it because YouTube does have that captioning.

KELLINA: Yes.

MARY: Do you ever use Apple podcasts?

KELLINA: I did a couple of times, but not often.

MARY: Okay. Because since March of this year, in 2024, they've included transcripts that you can follow along with. So I was just also wondering, from a listener perspective, do transcripts actually help at all?

KELLINA: Sometimes it does. And sometimes it doesn't, unfortunately. Sometimes it cuts off. So know when you're speaking or even when someone's speaking fast, sometimes it doesn't pick up everything that someone's talking, unfortunately. Or sometimes it's not active all the time, like consistent, right? Sometimes your iPhone may act up or, you know, maybe you need to upgrade a new software, because I know a lot of people have been complaining about they always have to be consistent with new iPhone software, which is annoying for some people, right? Like for me, I didn't know that there was a closed caption that was coming up in March until I tried in April and I couldn't find it on my phone. And it was so hard because I had to upgrade my phone. I'm like, are you kidding? So so