VoiceBox was approached to provide captions for Black Country Touring’s live-streamed discussions; making them more accessible for the local community.
BC Touring’s ultimate goal was accessibility and inclusivity; however, as they have had negative experiences with automated captioning in the past, they wanted to ensure a human stenographer was available and ready to give accurate captions.
BC Touring approached VoiceBox to fulfil this mission, but also because they had seen our personalised and flexible offering, which allowed for captions to be engaging and customisable.
Voicebox successfully provided captions for the discussion, and the assigned stenographer was highly praised for their adaptability and friendly nature.
The client achieved their mission for inclusivity and also had a positive experience with captioning (in contrast to their previous encounters with automated captions).
VoiceBox spoke to Olivia James, Community Cinema Coordinator, about the project:
What did BC Touring require and what challenges did you face when considering captioning and looking for multimedia service providers?
We were putting on a series of online film events that included live-streamed discussions which we wanted to make sure we’re accessible to everybody in our local community. We had both tried and attended other online events that utilised live captioning that was done by automated systems and it was often unreliable and didn’t make sense. It was important for us, both out of respect for our audiences and also for our professionalism and dedication to inclusion, that the captions we provided were accurate and not distracting.
Why did you decide to choose VoiceBox as your partner? How did we stand out against competitors?
We chose VoiceBox because the service was personable and personalised. They were flexible and worked to our needs which was really refreshing and appreciated. The stenographer assigned to our projects was consistent and we got to know her which really helped the discussions to be relaxed and enjoyable for everybody.
What was it like working with VoiceBox?
The stenographer we worked with in particular was a joy and I’d advocate for everybody to use a live captioner if they can. Too many times I have followed live captioning and become distracted because an incorrect word has changed the meaning of what somebody is saying, or it’s made it comical, or a rude or offensive word has come up by accident.
Would you use VoiceBox again?
Since working with VoiceBox we have become even more dedicated to making sure as many of our film shows are as accessible as possible. We will build such a service into our budgets and try to make as many of our events that need this service have it! I would have no hesitation in turning to VoiceBox with our needs again in the future and recommending them to others.