Webinar presenters: please don't have background music playing when you are speaking

[kestrell]

I just had to leave a webinar presentation on assistive technology because the speakers--who had pre-recorded their spoken presentations--had music playing way too loud, not quite background, as they spoke.

This makes it very difficult and frustrating to hear the presentation when you have a hearing impairment. And some people don't have the best recording setup to begin with.

Also, the cheezy electronic muzak makes me cranky. I'm going to give the same criticism I give when someone in a play makes me listen to a really bad attempt at dialect: it only makes you sound more professional if you can do it with the highest quality.

Comments

[jesse_the_k]

Yikes.

Even the highest quality music beds are an immediate back button for me. I can't decode meaning from speech while music is playing!

Funny, that's the second time today I've complained about this.

I was interviewed by an acafan. She's looking at the intersection of disability and podfic: are the creators aiming at disabled listeners? is listening to fannish podfic different than listening to "professional" (I know lots of it's volunteer) narration?

Do you listen to podfic?

[kestrell]

Btw, I participated in accessibility testing for the Sight Tech conference yesterday morning--I love these guys--and I brought up this subject, and the person leading the testing said that, when he organizes conferences, he likes to focus on the conversation, and not have distractions such as music competing with the conversation.
(The presentations with the background music wee for the Carroll Center Virtual Tech Fair, which is kind of disappointing, because I know they have consumers who are also deaf and HoH.)

I haven't listened to much podfic, just The Magnus Archives, which I adore. It has a brief music intro, but it is very brief, and I don't recall it overlapping with the dialog. Can you recommend some disability podfic? I didn't even know this was a thing.

Disambiguation

[jesse_the_k]

The Magnus Archives is a fictional podCAST. (btw, did you know rydra_wong hosts a screaming space re: TMA? at https://rydra-wong.dreamwidth.org/tag/the+magnus+archives?)

podfic "is an audio recording of fanfic, read aloud by a fan (or several). The term is also used as a verb; someone may ask to podfic someone else's story, or spend an afternoon podficcing. A podfic of a slash story may be called podslash. Podfic is also known as audiofic." More at Fanlore https://fanlore.org/wiki/Podfic

It's a transformative work, since the reader brings their own interpretation of and enthusiasm for the fanfic into the recording. anatsuno was one of the people whose work I first admired, and I'm thrilled to report she even gave me a lovely 9-minute podfic about semi-robotic bodies in Stargate Atlantis. (In brief, SGA posits a sentient city, which can communicate with beings who have a particular gene.)

Tall Kingdom I Surround by toft, read by anatsuno https://archiveofourown.org/works/550079

Are you interested in non-fiction podcasts about disability?