Accessibility and Ethics in Podcasting with Meg Wilcox - EP 106

What assumptions are holding you back from creating a more accessible show? If you knew more about your listener's accessibility needs, how would that change your show? Podcasting borrows so much of its policy and practice from more traditional forms of media, and while that's given us a great place to start, it's also slowed down innovation in this unique medium.

Meg Wilcox is a journalist and professor at Mount Royal University. Her research focuses on where podcasting could improve in terms of accessibility and ethics. In this episode, she shares how her experience producing an audio memoir for a woman with vision impairment prompted her to reconsider how we approach everything from recording and publishing to promoting our shows. You'll learn about the ethics of copyright ownership, the slow adoption of accessibility tools, and the ongoing barriers that, if dismantled, would give anyone with a podcasting dream the tools to make it come true.

Reframe how you think about your show's accessibility and availability:

• The power of accessibility upgrades to make podcasting better for everyone;
• The importance of understanding your audience and what they need;
• What's still missing in the wider world of media accessibility;
• Our flawed expectations around what's "professional" in audio.

Links worth mentioning from the episode:

• USC Annenberg, "Inequality in Popular Podcasts? An Examination of Gender & Race/Ethnicity": https://assets.uscannenberg.org/docs/aii-inequality-Podcasts-2025-11-06.pdf
• PodNews, "25 Podcasts Announced as Eligible for Golden Globes": https://podnews.net/press-release/golden-globes-eligible-podcasts-26
• Episode 99, "Canadian Identity in the Indie Podcasting Ecosystem with Kattie Laur": https://www.organizedsound.ca/canadian-identity-in-the-indie-podcasting-ecosystem-with-kattie-laur-episode-99/

Engage with Meg Wilcox:

• Listen to Static: A Party Girl's Memoir: https://www.megwilcox.com/2024/11/08/static-a-party-girls-memoir/
• Connect with Meg on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/megwilcox/
• Learn more about Meg's work: https://www.megwilcox.com/

Connect with Mary!

• Leave a voice note with your feedback at https://www.speakpipe.com/VisibleVoice or email visiblevoicepodcast@gmail.com
• Get the full transcript of the episode at http://www.visiblevoicepodcast.com
• Read up on more secrets with the Visible Voice Insights Newsletter https://www.organizedsound.ca/newsletter
• To learn more or work with Mary, check out https://www.organizedsound.ca
• Link up on LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/in/marychan-organizedsound/
• Engage on Instagram @OrganizedSoundProductions https://www.instagram.com/organizedsoundproductions

Show Credits:

• Podcast audio design, engineering, and editing by Mary Chan of Organized Sound Productions
• Show notes written by Shannon Kirk of Right Words Studio
• Post-production support by Kristalee Forre of Forre You VA
• Podcast cover art by Emily Johnston of Artio Design Co.