From DTV4ALL to HBB4ALL : Accessibility in European Broadcasting

The European Commission has had an active role in promoting research and development activities in media accessibility. Many projects have been funded in the last decade, and two have been directed to piloting accessibility services for broadcasting. While subtitling has always been identified as the access service par excellence, audio description (AD) has been gaining importance lately. Pilar Orero presents two EU projects, DTV4ALL and HBB4ALL, where media accessibility is the focus. Developments and outcomes in AD are analysed, as well as the possibilities offered for its broadcast from analogue to digital. The last part of the chapter is dedicated to the future of AD in the new media scenario, where the Internet and broadcast converge to offer new hybrid possibilities for production, distribution and interaction

Towards a user specification for immersive audio description

This chapter reports on an initial study conducted as part of the EU-funded Immersive Accessibility (ImAc) project, whose broad objective it is to define the requirements for accessibility services such as audio description and audio subtitles within immersive environments. This study follows a user-centric research design approach. A focus group comprising blind and partially sighted people was conducted to establish end-user expectations, recommendations and perceptions in order to elicit first principles for developing system requirements. The chapter concludes with recommendations for the initial user specification for the ImAc project

Training experts in inclusive practices for an equity on access to culture in Europe

Access to cultural content should be offered by several services available by default. If access services are thought, and budgeted, in the production phase, they are better integrated, and cultural content can be enjoyed by all patrons. How to integrate access services in the production of any cultural good relays on education. Until accessibility enters the syllabus in primary and secondary education curricula, and also in higher education, much work needs to be done. Until such a time when accessibility is normalized as a must-carry requirement, the work of experts in media accessibility will be needed to add accessibility in postproduction stages. The main focus of the chapter is training in postproduction accessibility. The enterprise is looked from many angles, but in all cases putting the end user at the center to understand their needs and expectations. To illustrate our approach to the subject, three European projects funded under the Erasmus + scheme will be used as examples: ACT (Accessible Culture and Training), ADLAB PRO (field of audio description), and ILSA (Interlingual Live Subtitling for Access

Evaluating subtitle readability in media immersive environments

The advances in VR technology has led to immersive videos rapidly gaining popularity. Accessibility to immersive media should be offered and subtitles are the most popular accessibility service. Research on subtitle readability has led to guidelines and standards (W3C, ISO/IEC/ITU 20071-23:2018). More research into subtitle presentation modes in 360º is needed in order to move towards understanding optimum readability. Evaluating readability for subtitles in immersive media environments requires a flexible and user-friendly framework for both creating the subtitles and presenting the generated subtitle file in a fully functional immersive video player, in order to understand the final view in the environment and assess its quality. This article starts by looking at the readability recommendations in W3C and ISO/IEC/ITU. The second part will describe the new features required in immersive subtitle presentations. The final section will describe the new web-based framework that allows the generation of immersive subtitles where readability may be tested. The framework has adopted a contrast and comparison approach towards instant readability evaluation

Immersive captioning : developing a framework for evaluating user needs

This article focuses on captioning for immersive environments and the research aims to identify how to display them for an optimal viewing experience. This work began four years ago with some partial findings. This second stage of research, built from the lessons learnt, focuses on the design requirements cornerstone: prototyping. A tool has been developed towards quick and realistic prototyping and testing. The framework integrates methods used in existing solutions. Given how easy it is to contrast and compare, the need to further the first framework was obvious. A second improved solution was developed, almost as a showcase on how ideas can quickly be implemented for user testing. After an overview on captions in immersive environments, the article describes its implementation, based on web technologies opening for any device with a web browser. This includes desktop computers, mobile devices and head mounted displays. The article finishes with a description of the new caption modes leading to improved methods, hoping to be a useful tool towards testing and standardisation

Accessible opera : overcoming linguistic and sensorial barriers

The desire to make media available for all has been rapidly accepted and implemented by most European countries. Opera, as one of the many audiovisual representations, also falls under the category of production which needs to be made accessible and this article aims to analyse how opera has gone through a complete transformation to become a cultural event for all, overcoming not only linguistic but also sensorial barriers. The first part of the article analyses the various forms of translation associated with opera and the main challenges they entail. The second presents different systems used to make opera accessible to the sensorially challenged, highlighting their main difficulties. Examples from research carried out at the Barcelona's Liceu opera house are presented to illustrate various modalities, especially audio description. All in all, it is our aim to show how translated-related processes have made it possible to open opera to a wider audience despite some initial reluctance

Audio Description Washes Brighter? A Study in Brand Names and Advertising

Dealing with objects in audio description, and particularly with those objects that have a clear designer imprint or branding, is a complex matter when a brand name is part of the scene in a film. Deciding whether to describe or not, and how, becomes more than a technical matter that depends on text–image synchronization: it is a complex decision-making process comparable to other forms of audiovisual translation that needs to be approached as a paradigmatic example of intersemiotic translation. Dávila-Montes and Orero address the audio description of branded objects in movies, and their intersemiotic translation from images to spoken words, a complex issue that may harbour additional insights into topics of a wider scope

Paratransit labour and regulatory compliance.

Paper presented at the 32nd Annual Southern African Transport Conference 8-11 July 2013 "Transport and Sustainable Infrastructure", CSIR International Convention Centre, Pretoria, South Africa.Matatu transport which is a form of paratransit in Kenya provides employment directly and indirectly to institutions and individuals. The sector mainly offers direct employment to drivers and conductors. These two are conceptualised to constitute paratransit labour. Indirectly, it offers work to vehicle assemblers; graphic designers; mechanics; insurance companies and petrol stations. Unlike previous studies which were based on a quantitative methodology, this paper takes a qualitative approach from the perspective of paratransit owners in an effort to explore how the terms of employment of paratransit labour affect regulatory compliance. The findings demonstrate the terms of employment such as the job responsibilities i.e. the minimum target and customer relations; working hours and breaks; and remuneration affect how paratransit labour behaves and interacts with other road users by increasing ridership through competitive behaviour that leads to violation of traffic regulations. Efforts by Government to enhance paratransit labour regulatory compliance should not focus on introducing tougher penalties but addressing the problem of corruption by traffic police and target setting by owners.This paper was transferred from the original CD ROM created for this conference. The material was published using Adobe Acrobat 10.1.0 Technology. The original CD ROM was produced by Document Transformation Technologies Postal Address: PO Box 560 Irene 0062 South Africa. Tel.: +27 12 667 2074 Fax: +27 12 667 2766 E-mail: nigel@doctech URL: http://www.doctech.co.zamv201

Terminological challenges in the translation of science documentaries: a case-study

This article aims to describe some of the main terminological problems audiovisual translators have to face when dealing with the translation of science documentaries, specifically in the English-Catalan combination. The first section of the article presents some theoretical concepts which underlie this research and which are taken, for the most part, from Cabré's Communicative Theory of Terminology. Then, specific terminological problems audiovisual translators have to solve are described using the data provided by a corpus of four science documentaries lasting approximately 50 minutes each. These challenges include identifying a term, understanding a term, finding the right equivalent, dealing with the absence of an adequate equivalent, solving denominative variations, choosing between in vivo and in vitro terminology, and overcoming mistranscriptions