Audio and Video issues.

[Outdated]

I really struggle to absorb information in audio and video formats. There’s an entire world of YouTube tutorials out there that are completely worthless to me, I learn nothing from them and end up frustrated and stressed.

I enjoy listening to music, I like watching movies and TV shows. Admittedly though I can watch a movie several times and see things that I never noticed in previous sittings. I live in a world of text and still images.

The audio is the worst part, it’s like the school teacher in the Charlie Brown cartoons – waah waah waah waah? And during my autism diagnosis we discovered that in videos I only watch a small part of the screen at a time and I’m usually only able to focus on one aspect of one person at a time. When they played me a short video clip of some women having a conversation then asked me questions about it I could only answer about one of the women, I wasn’t watching the others.

I’ve been worried about recent trends of web news services only offering news in video format, so I wrote a letter to the news service I read the most and told them about it. I got a lovely reply that made me happy.

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Hi Andrew,

Thank you for your message. It was a lovely discovery in our inbox this afternoon.
We’re thrilled you find the website useful and accessible.

Take care,

ABC News Digital

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Email: nunya
Feedback: Dear ABC,

I’m writing to thank you for maintaining your excellent news website and to express my hope that it will continue in it’s current format in the future. I am autistic and I really struggle to interpret information in video and audio formats, this is a common autistic trait. A news service in text is very important to me.

SBS also used to be a favourite news service for me but now less than half of their stories are in a text format, to people like myself they have become a defunct service. I also like the BBC news service but they are also starting to post stories in video only. I worry that the ABC will start to follow the same trend.

Please don’t change.

Yours sincerely,

 

[Nitro]

I really struggle to absorb information in audio and video formats. There’s an entire world of YouTube tutorials out there that are completely worthless to me, I learn nothing from them and end up frustrated and stressed.

I enjoy listening to music, I like watching movies and TV shows. Admittedly though I can watch a movie several times and see things that I never noticed in previous sittings. I live in a world of text and still images.

The audio is the worst part, it’s like the school teacher in the Charlie Brown cartoons – waah waah waah waah? And during my autism diagnosis we discovered that in videos I only watch a small part of the screen at a time and I’m usually only able to focus on one aspect of one person at a time. When they played me a short video clip of some women having a conversation then asked me questions about it I could only answer about one of the women, I wasn’t watching the others.

I’ve been worried about recent trends of web news services only offering news in video format, so I wrote a letter to the news service I read the most and told them about it. I got a lovely reply that made me happy.

-------

Hi Andrew,

Thank you for your message. It was a lovely discovery in our inbox this afternoon.
We’re thrilled you find the website useful and accessible.

Take care,

ABC News Digital

-----

Email: nunya
Feedback: Dear ABC,

I’m writing to thank you for maintaining your excellent news website and to express my hope that it will continue in it’s current format in the future. I am autistic and I really struggle to interpret information in video and audio formats, this is a common autistic trait. A news service in text is very important to me.

SBS also used to be a favourite news service for me but now less than half of their stories are in a text format, to people like myself they have become a defunct service. I also like the BBC news service but they are also starting to post stories in video only. I worry that the ABC will start to follow the same trend.

Please don’t change.

Yours sincerely,

I'm just the opposite.
Youtube Unversity is a great place to see how-tos.
Being eidetic, I retain visual information, so even if I see something I feel is wrong, I have that as a reference to what not to do too.

Most of my learning was from witnessing tasks being done then following suit if it worked out favorably.

 

[Angular Chap]

With tech related tutorials, I do like both, but I lean towards enjoying a good written tutorial with appropriate pictures, arrows and highlighted areas, rather than a video, no matter how high quality and well produced the video is. Videos tend to have intros, logos and sometimes obnoxious music. Hats off to the down to earth YouTubers who get right into the video without the intros and filler. Sensible ads i can tolerate, they have to make a living.

With regard to online services, I think that's yet more proof that they don't actually care about "accessibility" if they overlook something as simple as text over video and would rather follow trends than make their services genuinely accessible to as many people as possible.

 

[WhitewaterWoman]

I have difficulty retaining verbal information. I prefer to have things written down so I can go back and see what I missed. Because I always miss something.

Likewise with Youtube. I have to be extremely highly motivated to watch a video.

I have gotten to the point where I will watch white water instruction carefully. I have to watch over and over again. And sometimes trip reports. But mostly even those, I would prefer written words.

 

[Slime_Punk]

I'm just the opposite.
Youtube Unversity is a great place to see how-tos.
Being eidetic, I retain visual information, so even if I see something I feel is wrong, I have that as a reference to what not to do too.

Most of my learning was from witnessing tasks being done then following suit if it worked out favorably.

This is basically how I feel as well, but I have the same issue as you @Outdated when I'm watching something fiction or non-practical. It's even worse if the audio is out of sync with the video because then I can only pay attention to what's wrong with the presentation and miss everything else!

I also cannot for the life of me stitch together what's happening in movies ever when it's a visual narrative.

Even on Youtube, if I'm watching a long lecture and they cut it wrong so that everything goes out of sync I just throw my hands up. This happened recently with a series of GNU Octave lectures and I was like, "Guess I'm never going to learn this [crap]".

 

[ShawnChan]

I have difficulty retaining verbal information. I prefer to have things written down so I can go back and see what I missed. Because I always miss something.

Likewise with Youtube. I have to be extremely highly motivated to watch a video.

I have gotten to the point where I will watch white water instruction carefully. I have to watch over and over again. And sometimes trip reports. But mostly even those, I would prefer written words.

Yeah, I also find it difficult to remember verbal information. Sometimes, my gf says I do not care about her at all, bcoz I easily forgot the things she said. But I really care, I can't remember my own things, I can't decide it. So, I make tips and use alerts a lot to help me.

 

[SusanLR]

Following verbal instructions isn't easy.
I much prefer written and notes with diagrams or even a few photos.

I like watching movies while I'm watching them.
Then by the next day I will have forgotten much of the content and will watch
something over again without being bored because much of it will seem new.
It must be very interesting to retain the meaning.