Correct me if I’m wrong here, but almost every story I read on Episode has the “turn your volume up this story uses sound” splash in the beginning of the story. & it got me thinking that this type of format isn’t very user friendly toward hearing impaired readers. I don’t know if anyone’s ever done this but at least I’ve never seen it (& I read a LOT of stories), but wouldn’t it be cool if people started adding to the beginning of their stories the option to read with subtitles??? So readers can choose the subtitle option & it just narrates the sounds for them basically. “Eerie organ music is playing”, “crickets are chirping”, “clank as the keys dropped”. Yes it would be work to create two stories essentially, but wouldn’t it be so great for the hearing impaired community of Episode readers?!? I’m not that advanced yet but as soon as I figure out how to code it I’m adding it to all my stories!
Feel free to add your own ideas about what you think we need to see more of on episode!
I never have either. I recently started watching a deaf YouTuber and had to do it with subtitles because he only speaks using ASL, & he talked about how hard some every day things are for him bc people aren’t generally accommodating to the non hearing community! So I was like omg we absolutely need this
Most people usually forgot that there are people who play/write on episode who have disabilities. It might sound mean but I completely forgot aswell. And i love how you have brought it to peoples attention with this thread and i hope episode adds in some options in the writers portal which helps out people with disabilities.
Thank you! Totally not mean I’ve done it as well. Sometimes we just don’t think about the things people go through if we’re not in their shoes. But thank you for the support! I hope episode adds this too
None of my stories are published but this was my plan for when I do publish my stories. I had a conversation with my sister about a month ago and asked me where the music was coming from (there was a party scene). When I explained what was happening, she basically asked the same thing. So I’ll definitely be adding that option in all my stories.
I have an option for sound effect text helper in my story, but didn’t include any for background music since I don’t think it has a lot of significance. For instance, the purpose might come off as comedic
I’ve read a few stories that had that option (so sorry I can’t remember what they were) but as an author myself I feel like expecting subtitles to be an option is too much. I know some stories choose to use narration to demonstrate when a significant noise is made, however other authors prefer using sound (for whatever reason that may be). I feel like asking authors to have a hard of hearing option is a bit too much, it requires extra coding and makes it harder work. I can understand the idea of subtitles and I think if you were to write a story about someone who is deaf then you should probably use subtitles cause it just makes sense, but for other stories I think it’s an unneeded accessory. Remember, authors aren’t getting paid. It is something they enjoy doing. They have no obligation to make it more accessible for anyone with a disability. It is a nice thought and I mean no disrespect to anyone with hard of hearing. I just think it shouldn’t be an expectation put on authors, rather if an author chooses to include subtitles then so be it.
I add subtitles when I write. I watch everything with subtitles, and I never play Episode with sound on, so it feels pretty natural to me. I don’t use a whole lot of music, though, so what I’m subtitling is usually shorter sounds. “Breaks screeching,” “phone ringing,” etc. I don’t give an option to readers. It shows up for everyone.
