Podcast: 99% Invisible
"Craptions"
This fascinating episode of 99% Invisible traces the history of captioning content. Captions are a critical tool for deaf or hard of hearing people, but they're also increasingly a preference taken by hearing people too. Yet bad captions - or 'craptions' - are everywhere. This can often occur when automatic closed captions are used. These tools have improved but they can still get a lot of things wrong. Even if they are done manually, the average lay person doesn't know all the best practices, such as differentiating between speakers. TV and streaming sites are required to provide good captions, but sites such as YouTube can still be a real struggle for people that depend on closed captioning.
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Yesterday, local elections took place across England - and for the first time, voter ID was required to take part.
Fears of voter suppression are heightened as the Big Issue find that 1 in 18 applications for the government’s free form of photo ID have been rejected. Many citizens will not already have a form of ID available to them - if they have not left the country, they will likely not have a passport, or a driving licence if they don't have access to a car. An estimated 2 million fall into this category, and many will have not received the free government issued ID.
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The Electoral Reform Society has said this high rate of ID rejection is "deeply concerning", especially considering take up of the scheme was already very low.
Campaigners have warned that trans, disabled, elderly people, Muslims, and poorer communities will be most affected. And those who are already traditionally disengaged from the democratic process will be even more deterred by this extra barrier. For example, less than half of Black people think voting in local elections is important. More concrete figures around voter turnout will be confirmed in the coming days.
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Black students at the University of Manchester have staged a walk out in response to a lecturer repeatedly using a racial slur. A student also complained about receiving "racialised feedback" in response to an essay on equality. She was warned against using the essay as "a platform for personal exasperation or indignation around racism." Students affected have called for better guidelines and anti-racist training for staff. The university have apologised for the incidents and have launched an investigation into the issues.
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ADHD is a massive talking point on TikTok and the hashtag has received over 20 billion views. This has driven awareness of the condition and lesser known symptoms which has helped many users identify their own neurodiversity, or come to terms with a previous diagnosis. However, there is concern that the large volume of content could be perpetuating stereotypes and lead to inaccurate self-diagnoses. While more awareness and acceptance of ADHD can only be a good thing, a consultant psychiatrist Dr Saadia Arshad warns that you should always seek out real-life support "because you could be missing out on appropriate help."
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When Adrian Keogh landed in Sweden, he was told that any assistance to help him off the plane would take an hour to arrive. He was advised that he could crawl off the plane instead of waiting. As Keogh was in pain and keen to disembark the plane, he was forced to do so. And this is not even the first time he has experienced this treatment: "It's unacceptable - all I ask for is to be able to travel with dignity," he says. This incident also comes after a long history of disabled people being failed by air travel.
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Results from a study carried out by Just Like Us, an LGBTQIA+ young people’s charity, found that 88% of the trans people surveyed had experienced suicidal thoughts.
The survey included 3,695 adults aged 18 to 25 and revealed that LGBTQIA+ young adults were more than twice as likely to have self-harmed (65%) as compared to non-LGBTQIA+ respondents (31%). And within that bracket, the likelihood of having self-harmed was higher for trans and non-binary young adults, 76% and 78% respectively.
The interim chief executive of Just Like Us, Amy Ashenden, has said the results are not surprising and that “living in a society that often fails to support LGBT+ young people, and can even be actively anti-LGBT+, takes a toll on their mental and physical health.”
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Join industry experts and artists for live events full of career advice from Apprentice Nation. Upcoming events:
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Demystifying Careers in Finance [Webinar] - 11th May (7pm)
Explore finance career paths & hear from experts about the essential skills.
- The Importance of Digital Skills in the Workplace [Webinar] - 18th May (7pm)
Explore with experts how developing digital skills can improve confidence in your life and career
- The Secrets of Successfully Networking [Webinar] - 23rd May (7pm)
Find out the key skills and top tips to networking and how to succeed.
Click the links above to save your space!
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The Writers Guild of America (WGA) is on strike, the first Hollywood strikes in 15 years. It comes after weeks of negotiating with media giants such as Netflix, Amazon and Disney over fair compensation, but also around the use of AI in script writing. The WGA have called for regulation of AI on union projects , a proposal rejected by producers. One writer said "not only is it ridiculous, but it's massively insulting" to attempt to supplement writers with AI. The main concern currently is that AI will produce the source material, and the real writers will come in secondary to make heavy rewrites whilst being underpaid.
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Recent reports show that workplace bullying is still widespread, take the Metropolitan Police and deputy prime minister Dominic Raab for instance. Research shows that the best ways to tackle workplace bullying and support victims is social support from colleagues alongside a workplace that puts employee wellbeing first, ahead of job performance.
Organisations can do several things to tackle it, starting with a “no tolerance” approach; making sure roles and responsibilities are very clear; and encouraging employees to have more control of their daily tasks.
If you're job hunting and want to find out a company's culture in advance, try reading their policies on bullying and harassment, looking at how they have responded to complaints of bullying online or speaking to a previous or current employee.
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