How to make your Twitch Stream more accessible!
Did you know that July is Disablity Pride Month?
So what a better time to talk about how to make your streams more accessible.
Did you know that in the UK alone "24% of the population is disabled" [1]. That's a lot of people who may want to check out and support your streams, but aren't able to due to lack of accessibility. I wanted to write this blog post to be able to help you make your streams more accessible this month and show that it's easier than you think!
Closed Captions
Alt Text on Twitch Panels
Trigger Warnings and Content Warnings
Be more descriptive when Streaming
Carefully set your Ads up
1) Closed Captions [CC]
Closed Captions are a great way of making your streams more accessible and reaching out to more of your audience. Plus, Twitch already has a handy CC button on your live streams! PC/Mac viewers being able to click that and alter the options to their own preference.
One of the easiest ways of adding CC is by using a free plug in for OBS. They have a PC, Mac and Linex option when downloading the plug-in, making it easier for more streamers to use it. Make sure to download the latest version of the plug-in and keep it updated. Here's some handy links to go download it, plus some tutorials on how to use it:
• OBS Closed Captioning Plugin 0.28
• Information & written tutorial on how to set up
• Video tutorial on how to set up OBS Closed Captioning
• Twitch Official Help on Closed Captions (for both viewers and streamers)
There's a lot of customisation that comes with this plug-in, including things like setting the language, how many lines will show on the stream and even an option for it to stop captioning when you are muted (we don't want to accidently leak any personal information we don't want to share now do we). There's also an option for you to either set the captions to be just for the streaming service, or to have them within the stream once it's finished which can be handy for VODs. You can also have an option where it transcribes the whole video so you can even use that as captions on platforms like Youtube.
Handy Tip: If you are playing a game with lots of dialouge, make sure to have Captions turned on in the game settings. That way all of your audience can hear and see what the characters in the game are saying.
2) ALT Text on Twitch Panels
Twitch sadly doesn't have ALT text for panel images yet (as of writing this post anyway) so you might be a little confused to what I mean. Directly under the panel image, I'd recommend writing exactly what the panel image is, or if it's a link to somewhere writing that the link is to. But why do you need to do something? Well someone who is partially sighted or blind will use a screen reader. A screen reader will audibly read out what’s on the screen whether this be text, icons or images. I know having uniform panels with pretty graphics looks aesthetically pleasing, but to someone using a screen reader, they can't learn more about you and will just click off your channel.
There is a skill to writing good and bad ALT text. There's a fantastic guide from RNIB that I always refer back to when writing my ALT text. I've also linked one from SCOPE that goes into more detail about other types of images such as graphics and art.
• RNIB - How can I write ALT text?
• SCOPE - how to write ALT text descriptions for image accessibility
Please be mindful of what you do type as well. Symbols such as these do not work well:
~ ✧ ♡ ---> (◕‿◕) (ﾉ'ヮ')ﾉ
Handy Tip: You can also write ALT on your social media posts too. It's something I'm trying to be more mindful of doing so my work can be more accessible.
3) Trigger Warnings and Content Warnings
Something you may not have thought about is having trigger or content warnings on your streams. If you know for example a game that has flashing lights a trigger warning would be ideal for those who suffer from photosensitive seizures or epilepsy as it could save them from having an epileptic seizure. There are some fantastic resources out there which help list triggers, all you have to do is search for the game title.
• Can I play that? A database of games & their accessibility
Another thing you might have not thought about is whether the game you’re playing might have heavy topics. Some of your audience could really benefit from a content warning of heavy topics and even covering some fears. A site I'd recommend is 'Game Content Triggers'. This lists a handful of common fears and phobias so even if you haven't played the game, you can double-check if there's anything you need to add a content warning for. There's also 'Does the Dog Die' which not only covers animals, it also covers a lot of heavy topics and fears (similar to the other site). I'll link both below here:
• Game Content Triggers
• Does the Dog Die?
Handy Tip: Create commands in chat such as !tw or !trigger so that way your audience can access that information straight away in chat.
4) Be more descriptive when Streaming
This is something you can start doing straight away without needing to add a plug-in or check any databases. Be more descriptive of what you are doing, especially if it's a stream like cooking, sewing or art. Adding a little verbal description to what you are doing can make all the difference. It doesn't even need to be instructional. You could talk about how you love creating character art, or talk about why you love the pan you are using. You don't have to go over the top and describe every little thing you do. Let’s go over some examples:
Bad: "Ok so just added that"
Good: "Ok, I’m adding the chopped onions to the pan"
Bad: "Just colouring in"
Good: "I've finished the base colour for this piece, I'll now start adding some detail"
Handy Tip: Replying to people's messages/comments from the chat verbally is always nice. To make it more accessible read out their comment or message first, then you can react and reply.
5) Carefully set your Ads up
We all know ads can be annoying, but we also know they're how our favourite streamers can afford to keep streaming. Be mindful though when you set your ads. Disabling pre-rolls not only is better for new viewers entering the chat but it's a fact that "one in every three viewers will exit a stream with a pre-roll ad to find another stream that doesn’t have them"[2].
A better solution is having ads roll when you are taking a break, or even have them scheduled for every hour or so, that way you can still earn revenue and viewers are not bombarded with ads just for entering your stream. There's a handy guide here on how to Disable your Twitch pre-roll ads:
• SteamLadder - Disabling Twitch Pre-Roll Ads