Huron County is making the move to YouTube to help make meetings more accessible to the public by starting a YouTube channel.
During Wednesday’s council meeting, County Clerk Susan Cronin shared that the county has been working for the past three years in order to make it easier for people to view council meetings, and the quickest and easiest way would be by live-streaming meetings on YouTube.
Over the past few years, council chambers have been outfitted with better audio-visual equipment, and with a step to YouTube, meetings will be easier to access.
It also allows for meetings to be saved and viewable after-the-fact.
One question raised by councillor Paul Klopp was about accessibility for the hearing-impaired and viewers who need subtitles.
Cronin shared that to pay someone to complete closed-captioning on saved videos can be pricey, but that YouTube’s closed captioning system meets the requirements for AODA captioning requirements, and is free with the service.
Lower-tier municipalities have already started streaming on YouTube, and have seen the benefit to putting their meetings on the platform.
Huron County’s change will affect council, committee, and board meetings in the future.