Here's the question: If I build it, will they come?  More specifically, if you would like closed captioning/subtitles to appear on this site, I would like to hear from you.

Another website I created, but haven't contributed a lot to lately, is called Mainstream Guides. Its basic purpose is to find great, free software and teach people how to use it.  At some point I realized that, while someone might be interested in a particular piece of free software, the number of people who would return to the site for more was quite limited.  Return traffic is all-important if you're trying to get any kind of payment for your work on a website.

At any rate, that website was my learning ground for the technique of video instruction called "screencasting."  While some things on this site are shown as video taken with a camcorder, everything on Mainstream Guides, and much of what I do on Flip In Focus, is done by capturing the screen as I am using my computer -- using a piece of software, navigating the web, and the like.  The other thing I do is provide a narrative of what I'm doing, as I'm doing it.  The technique of screen capture, combined with narrative, is called "screencasting."

The software I use for screencasting is called Camtasia.  One of its features is the ability to add the narrative in written form at the bottom of the screen, which is called "Closed Captioning."  I script my narrative, for the most part, so this was a bit of value I could add, and it fit with my idealism to do so.  I thought it would bring information of value to an audience who otherwise would be unable to get it. As a result, I persisted in adding closed captions to all of my videos on that site.

The problem is, I never got one piece of feedback that said anyone made use of it.  I wasn't looking for strokes -- I just wanted to know whether or not the effort was useful, or if it was wasted time better spent on other things.  I spent some time Googling for some place I could register my work on a list of media for the hearing impaired, but found no such thing.

When I started this website, the question arose again.  I found someone who had reviewed the UltraHD on YouTube with closed captioning.  I exchanged a few emails with him, and one thing I found out is that deaf people do a lot of vlogging (video web logging) because they can sign in their vlogs.

Today, I discovered that YouTube has added a feature that will automatically add captions, via speech-to-text processing, if your request it.  Alternatively, you can post your script with your video, and YouTube will use some other magic to time it to the video, so that the text appears on the screen as it's uttered from your mouth.

So, I'm back to the question:  If I take the time and effort to do this, is it worth it to anyone?  Will anyone discover that I provide this service?  How do I find them?

If you have any feedback on this, I would appreciate hearing it.  If you're a member, add a comment, below,  If you're not, use this contact link.

Thanks.