Publishing desk · 2026-10-28
A transcript check that starts with who is speaking
Review speaker changes before spending time on small punctuation edits.
W3C’s transcript guidance includes identifying speakers. For an interview, a readable record should let someone follow the exchange without having to recognise voices.
Take a short passage containing a question, an interruption and the response. Listen while reading that passage. Mark the speaker at each change and settle on consistent labels, such as the names introduced in the recording. If a voice is uncertain, investigate that passage instead of assigning a name from context alone.
In an illustrative draft, a guest’s answer can accidentally continue under the host’s label after an interruption. Correcting that boundary changes who appears to have made the statement. Keep editorial explanations visibly separate from the spoken words, and carry the same naming convention through the rest of the document.
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Sources and editorial notes
- W3C WAI — Transcripts · reviewed 2026-10-23
A practical note prepared with AI assistance and checked against the linked source before scheduling. Examples are illustrative, not reports from a customer account. This is evergreen guidance, not a news announcement. The publication date records its release; the source-review date remains separate.