Why I have issues with audio

I have recived a number of comments on my postings about audio. I would like to make my postin clear. I am not against audio if used appropriately. My issue is with how many course authors use audio. I break the issue with audio into two groups 1) accessibility 2) instructional design

Issue #1 Accessibility:
1. Audio does not make a course accessible to blind readers. Blind people like their audio to be about 3 x faster then we speak.
2. Are your learners in cubes? If so, do they have speakers, do they have head phones - many employees can not listen to courses

My accessibilities issue is that many times audio makes a course less accessible

Issues #2 Instructional design
1. Because you give a good classroom course/presentation does not mean that voice annotating the same presentation will make it good.
2. In a classroom people are socially compelled to look like they are paying attention; at their desk they are not and may dive into their in basket if you play audio
3. Does the audio make the course boring? People only retain 10% of what they learn from audio.


Audio is fine in a course, but you need to defend why you have audio. If you put audio into a course because it will take less time to record audio then create a compelling eLearning course, you really should reconsider creating eLearning. Why should learners waist their time on a course you are too lazy to make compelling.