Accessibility for Rusty Quill

Encouraging podcast companies to make their content accessible. [Icon ID: a blue and grey microphone with a piece of paper behind it. /end]

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Rusty Quill transcripts update

Rusty Quill is continuing to make progress on providing transcripts! The organization for Magnus Season 2 has been clarified, and corrections and finalizations have been made on RQG transcripts.

There are some things still to do, as well as some new suggestions we have.

Transcripts to do

Extras and side campaigns for Rusty Quill Gaming.

Between-season content for Stellar Firma seasons 1 and 2.

Organization

Consistent numbering system for RQG transcripts (so that they appear in the correct order). Season 2 especially needs this.

Link to Outliers transcripts.

Links on main transcript page for Trice Forgotten and Chapter and Multiverse.

Links on main transcript page for The Program, Malevolent, Ostium, The Hyacinth Disaster, and Woe.BEGONE.

Link on show page to transcripts for The Program.

Formatting

PDF transcripts for The Magnus Archives season 2.

Word transcripts for RQG, STL, and Enthusigasm.

We're glad to see this progress, and hope to see more soon!

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Thank You!

We are delighted that Rusty Quill has now released transcripts for, Stellar Firma, The Magnus Archives, and the main campaign of Rusty Quill Gaming. This is no small feat: RQG in particular is quite a long podcast, and this is a great step forward in making these stories accessible to a wider audience.

The transcripts are available here: https://rustyquill.com/transcripts/

We firmly believe that some accessibility is better than none, and commend RQ for releasing the transcripts despite some flaws and gaps. We are also pleased that a form is available here for submitting corrections to the transcripts, indicating that RQ will continue to improve the transcripts.

That said, there are some areas for improvement, which we hope RQ will address soon, namely:

Releasing transcripts of the extras and side campaigns for Rusty Quill Gaming. Some of the side quests, particularly the Ancient Rome one, are relevant to the main story, and the guest episodes feature a wide range of gaming systems and styles, meaning they provide valuable content that should be made accessible.

Releasing transcripts for the between-season content for Stellar Firma seasons 1 and 2.

Establishing a consistent numbering system for RQG transcripts which will put them in the correct order. Currently, some episodes are out of their chronological order, which may give the impression that these episodes are missing altogether.

Providing links to the Outliers transcripts. Since Outliers was a co-production with Historic Royal Palaces, the situation is probably a bit more complex regarding hosting, but links or directions seem a reasonable expectation

Adding PDF transcripts and sharing Word transcripts more clearly for Magnus Season 2. The transcripts are currently available, if you go to the main Magnus Archives transcript folder, then MAG Word, then season 2, then Legacy Magnus S2 transcripts, but this is a rather complicated way of getting there.

Making corrections and finalizing the RQG transcripts. While we don’t expect perfection, and we’re glad that the transcripts were released as is, there are still areas highlighted for review throughout them.

Again, we are very pleased by Rusty Quill’s progress, and we congratulate them on finishing the greater part of the work needed.

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Thank you!

We appreciate Rusty Quill’s efforts in getting transcripts done and releasing updates. It’s especially nice to see Enthusigasm have transcripts released along with episodes. We’re looking forward to the big transcript release this January!

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Hey, I know that at the moment you have a specific goal, but your blog description and name are clearly aimed broader than one company. Do you have any future plans to approach other places? Or maybe a toolkit on how to approach places yourself and start asking these questions ourself?

Thank you for your question! We met each other through RQ content initially. Our familiarity with their content and with their public communications regarding transcripts over time made them a reasonable choice of starting point, especially when combined with their stated goal of being a positive example to the wider podcasting industry. As our group gathers more members and resources, we'll be better placed to broaden our focus towards other podcasters as well.

We’re using Rusty Quill as a starting point, but we do hope to have a broader reach, although we’re not quite sure what that’ll look like. We do plan to provide resources for both fans asking for transcripts and podcasters trying to provide them, and we hope to work with other accessibility advocates and with podcasters to promote practical, sustainable transcription.

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First Steps: What Rusty Quill Can Do Right Now

We do genuinely appreciate Rusty Quill's response to our concerns! Since we understand that this is a complex issue, we have some suggestions for immediate action steps RQ can take to improve accessibility.

Create a centralized location to find transcripts. We're not asking for the full website: a Google Drive folder would be genuinely helpful.

Provide links to the transcripts on the public Rusty Quill website. Even for those who are subscribed to RQ's patreon, the Patreon website is notoriously hard to navigate, and accessibility should never be behind a paywall.

Publish the transcripts for Stellar Firma seasons 1-2, which RQ purchased months ago. Even if these don't perfectly match the style and format RQ hopes to use, imperfect transcripts are better than no transcripts.

Set a deadline for themselves to either have new transcripts available or provide new information. We absolutely understand that obstacles may come up, but a little transparency about those obstacles would let Rusty Quill show that they are acting in good faith.

Again, we appreciate Rusty Quill's response, and we hope that this situation can be resolved soon.

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From RQ: An Update on Transcripts

We’d just like to give you all an update on the transcripts situation for all our in-house productions.

We’ve already allocated major resources and are working with some professional transcription companies to start getting all existing and future shows sorted in the next few months including Stellar Firma, Rusty Quill Gaming and The Magnus Archives.

We’re sorry this has taken so long. Over the last 18 months, we have had several false starts and dead ends as we explored various solutions, none of which panned out in a way were comfortable with and as a result our messaging around this issue has been inconsistent.

To briefly explain, our backlog has proven far more expensive and labour intensive than we originally anticipated. This meant we could not afford a full professional transcription service for all shows until recently and even then, we have found that work from the best professional companies will still require considerable additional internal work if we want to prepare them in a format familiar to those of you who have read our existing transcripts.

To be clear, we have already trialled numerous methods used by industry peers, but unfortunately we have found them to be inconsistent in quality, unsustainable at our larger scale, or making extensive use of free labour.

All that said, we are pleased to say that we are now at the QA stage with a reputable professional provider, we’re checking samples meet our internal accuracy/accessibility standards and we’re calculating the timescales needed to address our entire backlog a.s.a.p. We have already committed the significant funds to commission our entire back catalogue and have restructured our internal processes to accommodate a new system and are building a whole new website to better facilitate accessible transcripts for all shows at point of release going forward. We hope that all these changes working in concert together should place us in a strong position on transcripts going forwards but obviously it’s too early for us to be certain on all points.

We’ll update everyone on any major developments going forwards and as soon as we are confident we have a permanent, sustainable and ethical solution in place that will meet our standards, we will proceed publicly. Until then we’d like to thank everyone for your ongoing patience as we work through this complicated process.

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Why RQ: Core Values and Accessibility

We are asking Rusty Quill, a well-established and successful podcasting company, to provide the transcripts they have been promising for years.

Rusty Quill has a set of five values prominently displayed on their website which they claim to follow. Not having transcripts directly violates all five of these values.

Diversity – “Maintaining a safe and non-discriminatory work space where people can collaborate on exciting and unique creative projects.”

By neglecting the needs of the disabled, Rusty Quill sends a message that suggests only certain people are welcome.

Opportunity – “Providing paid employment opportunities for those seeking to break into media production.”

By not providing official transcripts, Rusty Quill benefits from the unpaid labor of volunteer transcribers.

Representation – “Providing a platform for new creative voices with poor representation in more established media.”

When many marginalized people can't access their content after repeated requests, Rusty Quill invalidates the experiences of these groups.

Community – “Working with our fans to grow a friendly and supportive community, united by our love of storytelling.”

Having Rusty Quill ignore access needs makes many fans feel unwelcome, if they can even access the stories told at all.

Responsibility –  “Leading by example and working with our peers to improve the business practices of the media production industry.”

High-quality transcripts should be standard practice, but Rusty Quill is following the current tendency to neglect accessibility. Indeed, many other podcasts have transcripts, so RQ is arguably behind the expected standard.

In short, by not providing transcripts Rusty Quill is violating its own core tenets. We ask that they provide transcripts, putting their money where their mouth is, and creating concrete, irrefutable progress towards fulfilling all of their values.

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Sign Petition: Show Rusty Quill: We Care About Accessibility!

As of 09 June, for the six Rusty Quill shows 376 out of 535 episodes (not including bonus content) do not have official transcripts, or roughly 70%. Without

Please sign this petition to show your support in urging Rusty Quill to make an effort to be more accessible!

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For those of you interested, the group Make Podcasts Accessible has started a petition to encourage Rusty Quill to follow through with their Patreon goal of making transcripts available for their podcasts that was met over a year ago. Please consider signing, even if it’s anonymously, so Rusty Quill will realize just how much transcripts mean to their audience and that their announcements about transcripts need to be public.

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I thought that they *did* have transcripts?

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It’s on a show by show, episode by episode basis.

The Magnus Archives has transcripts for 114 out of its 200 episodes. According to the most recent update from Rusty Quill in the 16 November Patreon mail: “The existing gaps in main show episodes that have already been done (albeit unformatted) will be released by the end of the year [2020], and worked on to bring into line with the new formatting.” As of this post, they have not been released.

Rusty Quill bought/signed-off on the Stellar Firma season 1 and 2 transcripts from a fan transcription group in February 2021 but haven’t released them to the public yet. They have been releasing the season 3 transcript links in the individual episode show notes so they have 26 out of 76 episodes transcribed.

None of the Rusty Quill Gaming episodes have been transcribed. As of the above Patreon mail, we know they are “investigating professional transcription services”.

For Outliers, the season 2 scripted episodes have transcripts so 13 out of 28 episodes have transcripts.

Enthusigasm was released after Rusty Quill reached their goal that included “making sure [accessibility] considerations are made at the planning stages for new shows“; however, 0 out of the 12 episodes have transcripts.

All 6 episodes of Inexplicables have transcripts, which is fantastic!

As far as the Rusty Quill Network shows go, there are five shows that were added to the network. Out of the five, four of them that have transcripts in either HTML or PDF format. These small podcasts produced their transcripts before joining the network.

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Sign Petition: Show Rusty Quill: We Care About Accessibility!

As of 09 June, for the six Rusty Quill shows 376 out of 535 episodes (not including bonus content) do not have official transcripts, or roughly 70%. Without

Please sign this petition to show your support in urging Rusty Quill to make an effort to be more accessible!

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Why are transcripts important to you?

Got a reason you use transcripts? An experience when they were helpful? Feel free to submit your reasons here on desktop or using the ‘submit a post’ option on mobile so content creators can get an idea of just how important transcripts are to their audience.

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RQ Podcast Transcript Status for 09 June 2021

Rusty Quill Gaming - As of November 2020 (the most recent update): “we are currently investigating professional transcription services who can handle this bulk work.” No transcripts are available. 200 out of 200 episodes do not have official transcripts.

The Magnus Archives - 86 out of 200 episodes do not have official transcripts. Between season content is even more sparse.

Stellar Firma - Season 3 transcript links are in the show notes (which are not accessible through Rusty Quill’s website). Rusty Quill bought the transcripts for season 1 and 2 in February 2021 but have yet to link or host them, meaning 50 out of 76 episodes do not have (publicly) official transcripts.

Outliers - The scripted episodes in season 2 have transcript links in the show notes, meaning 28 out of 41 episodes do not have official transcripts.

Enthusigasm - No transcripts are available and it is unclear if or when they will be released. 12 out of 12 episodes do not have official transcripts.

Inexplicables - Transcripts for all episodes were released at episode drop on the Patreon post. 0 out of 6 episodes do not have official transcripts. Thank you for making this accessible!

In total, 376 out of 535 episodes (not including bonus content) do not have official transcripts, or roughly 70%.

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Rusty Quill and transcripts

Rusty Quill and transcripts A timeline written for those who are new to the topic On 01 April 2017, RQ posted https://rustyquill.com/archives-accessibility/ to their website’s news section. It states that their Patreon launched the previous day, that TMA transcripts were initially intended to be...

Why make the push for transcripts from Rusty Quill now? Aren’t they working on producing them? Well, yes and no.

To get an idea of how long Rusty Quill has been working on transcripts, here is a handy timeline (including links).

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Things we want from Rusty Quill

Budget for accessibility so more people can enjoy your products. 

Communicate what is going on. When we are past previous deadlines, update us as much as you can. 

Transcripts hosted on your website that are easy to find, easy to read, and easy to navigate. 

Make accessibility more of a priority. If we are pretty much in the same spot accessibility-wise as we were in 2017, you aren’t making it a priority. Something else keeps getting prioritized over accessibility so it is not a priority. (Things really are that simple if it’s been 4 years with minimal progress.) 

Make announcements public. It’s fine to have patrons be the first to know about them but also make a public announcement. The last public announcement regarding transcripts was in 2018. Accessibility, including announcements about it, shouldn’t be behind a paywall. 

If a transcript will be late, make an announcement. If it will be delayed for the public release, make a public announcement, just like you would if the audio would be delayed.