Translation, accessibility and the viewing experience of foreign, deaf and blind audiences has long been a neglected area of research within film studies. The same applies to the film industry, where current distribution strategies and exhibition platforms severely underestimate the audience that exists for foreign and accessible cinema. Translated and accessible versions are usually produced with limited time, for little remuneration, and traditionally involving zero contact with the creative team. Against this background, this book presents accessible filmmaking as an alternative approach, integrating translation and accessibility into the filmmaking process through collaboration between translators and filmmakers. The book introduces a wide notion of media accessibility and the concepts of the global version, the dubbing effect and subtitling blindness. It presents scientific evidence showing how translation and accessibility can impact the nature and reception of a film by foreign and sensory-impaired audiences, often changing the film in a way that filmmakers are not always aware of. The book includes clips from the award-winning film Notes on Blindness on the Routledge Translation Studies Portal, testimonies from filmmakers who have adopted this approach, and a presentation of the accessible filmmaking workflow and a new professional figure: the director of accessibility and translation. This is an essential resource for advanced students and scholars working in film, audiovisual translation and media accessibility, as well as for those (accessible) filmmakers who are not only concerned about their original viewers, but also about those of the foreign and accessible versions of their films, who are often left behind.

Translation, accessibility and the viewing experience of foreign, deaf and blind audiences has long been a neglected area of research within film studies. The same applies to the film industry, where current distribution strategies and exhibition platforms severely underestimate the audience that exists for foreign and accessible cinema. Translated and accessible versions are usually produced with limited time, for little remuneration, and traditionally involving zero contact with the creative team. Against this background, this book presents accessible filmmaking as an alternative approach, integrating translation and accessibility into the filmmaking process through collaboration between translators and filmmakers. The book introduces a wide notion of media accessibility and the concepts of the global version, the dubbing effect and subtitling blindness. It presents scientific evidence showing how translation and accessibility can impact the nature and reception of a film by foreign and sensory-impaired audiences, often changing the film in a way that filmmakers are not always aware of. The book includes clips from the award-winning film Notes on Blindness on the Routledge Translation Studies Portal, testimonies from filmmakers who have adopted this approach, and a presentation of the accessible filmmaking workflow and a new professional figure: the director of accessibility and translation. This is an essential resource for advanced students and scholars working in film, audiovisual translation and media accessibility, as well as for those (accessible) filmmakers who are not only concerned about their original viewers, but also about those of the foreign and accessible versions of their films, who are often left behind.

Based on sound research and first-hand experience in the field, Subtitling through Speech Recognition: Respeaking is the first book to present a comprehensive overview of the production of subtitles through speech recognition in Europe. Topics covered include the origins of subtitling for the deaf and hard of hearing, the different methods used to provide live subtitles and the training and professional practice of respeaking around the world. The core of the book is devoted to elaborating an in-depth respeaking course, including the skills required before, during and after the respeaking process. The volume also offers detailed analysis of the reception of respeaking, featuring information about viewers' preferences, comprehension and perception of respoken subtitles obtained with eye-tracking technology. Accompanying downloadable resources feature a wealth of video clips and documents designed to illustrate the material in the book and to serve as a basis for the exercises included at the end of each chapter. The working language of the book is English, but the downloadable resources also contain sample material in Dutch, French, Galician, German, Italian and Spanish. Subtitling through Speech Recognition: Respeaking is designed for use as a coursebook for classroom practice or as a handbook for self-learning. It will be of interest to undergraduate and postgraduate students as well as freelance and in-house language professionals. It will also find a reading public among broadcasters, cinema, theatre and museum managers, as well as the deaf and members of deaf associations, who may use the volume to support future campaigns and enhance the quality of the speech-to-text accessibility they provide to their members.

This is the first volume to deal specifically with the quality of subtitles for the deaf and hard of hearing (SDH) in Europe, with contributions from the UK, Spain, Italy, Poland, Denmark, France and Germany. Drawing on the results of the EU-funded project DTV4ALL, the book looks at the issue of quality in the reception of SDH in Europe as a combination of three factors: what viewers think about SDH, how they understand these subtitles and how they view them. The viewers' preferences have been obtained through questionnaires and their comprehension has been analysed with tests, involving clips with SDH and questions. The viewers' perception has been measured with eye-tracking technology, involving the analysis of 71,070 subtitles in what is so far the largest international eye-tracking study on subtitling. With this research, we have sought to obtain both subjective (preferences) and objective (comprehension and perception) data that can inform national guidelines on SDH. The book also introduces the notion of viewing speed and points to the existence of certain universals of SDH and subtitling that can contribute to advance our understanding of how different types of viewers from different nationalities view, process and understand subtitles as a means to access audiovisual content.

Based on sound research and first-hand experience in the field, Subtitling through Speech Recognition: Respeaking is the first book to present a comprehensive overview of the production of subtitles through speech recognition in Europe. Topics covered include the origins of subtitling for the deaf and hard of hearing, the different methods used to provide live subtitles and the training and professional practice of respeaking around the world. The core of the book is devoted to elaborating an in-depth respeaking course, including the skills required before, during and after the respeaking process. The volume also offers detailed analysis of the reception of respeaking, featuring information about viewers' preferences, comprehension and perception of respoken subtitles obtained with eye-tracking technology. Accompanying downloadable resources feature a wealth of video clips and documents designed to illustrate the material in the book and to serve as a basis for the exercises included at the end of each chapter. The working language of the book is English, but the downloadable resources also contain sample material in Dutch, French, Galician, German, Italian and Spanish. Subtitling through Speech Recognition: Respeaking is designed for use as a coursebook for classroom practice or as a handbook for self-learning. It will be of interest to undergraduate and postgraduate students as well as freelance and in-house language professionals. It will also find a reading public among broadcasters, cinema, theatre and museum managers, as well as the deaf and members of deaf associations, who may use the volume to support future campaigns and enhance the quality of the speech-to-text accessibility they provide to their members.