Captioning and Subtitling for d/Deaf and Hard of Hearing Audiences

List of figures
List of tables
List of abbreviations
Prefac Acknowledgements

1 Subtitling for d/Deaf and hard of hearing audiences
1.1 The history of subtitles
1.2 SDH within audiovisual translation (AVT) 1.3 Legislation on accessibility
1.3.1 Television and video-on-demand quotas 1.3.2 SDH at the cinema
1.4 The SDH subtitler
1.4.1 The live subtitler
1.5 Discussion points
2 Who is our audience?
2.1 Models of deafness and disabilities
2.2 A spoken language for d/Deaf and hard of hearing audiences
2.3 Deafness
2.3.1 Causes, types and degrees
2.3.2 Hearing devices
2.3.2.1 Hearing aids
2.3.2.2 Cochlear implantation
2.4 d/Deaf children
2.5 Discussion points
3 Linguistic considerations
3.1 Text editing
3.1.1 What can be omitted
3.1.2 Children’s programmes
3.2 Segmentation and line-breaks
3.3 Non-standard language
3.3.1 Children’s programmes
3.4 Orthotypographical conventions
3.4.1 Upper case
3.4.2 Italics
3.4.3 Single and double quotes
3.4.4 Round brackets
3.4.5 Suspension dots
3.4.6 Dashes and hyphens
3.4.7 Symbols
3.5 Discussion points
4 Technical considerations
4.1 Synchronisation between subtitle and sound/image
4.2 Subtitle presentation rates: Reading speeds
4.3 Minimum gap between subtitles
4.4 Shot changes
4.5 Subtitle layout
4.5.1 Font and size
4.5.2 Number of lines
4.5.3 Line length
4.6 Position of subtitle on screen
4.6.1 The safe area
4.7 Subtitle file formats
4.8 Discussion points
5 Specific requirements
5.1 Speaker identification
5.1.1 Colours
5.1.2 Labels and dashes or hyphens
5.2 Paralinguistic features
5.2.1 Accents and pronunciation
5.2.2 Intonation
5.2.2.1 Emphasis
5.2.2.2 Whispering
5.2.2.3 Lyrics
5.2.2.4 Sarcasm
5.2.2.5 Other voice qualifiers
5.2.3 Vocal non-verbal sounds
5.2.4 Pauses and hesitations
5.3 Music
5.4 Sound effects
5.5 Silence
5.6 Discussion points
6 Captioning theatre and subtitling live events
6.1 Captioning theatre plays
6.1.1 Open captioning in theatres around the world
6.1.2 Closed-captioning solutions in theatres
6.1.3 The role of the theatre captioner
6.2 Captioning puppet theatre
6.2.1 The Puppet Theatre Barge
6.2.2 Puppet shows for younger children 6.2.3 Puppet shows for older children
6.2.4 Puppet shows for adults
6.3 Marketing the captioned performance
6.4 Before the captioned performance
6.5 On the day of the captioned performance 6.6 Audience’s feedback on captioned puppet shows
6.6.1 Audience demographics
6.6.2 Visibility of the caption unit
6.6.3 Did captions improve access to or enjoyment of the play?
6.7 Subtitling live events
6.8 Discussion points

Appendix 1 Questionnaire collected after a captioned performance
Appendix 2 Summary of feedback from captioned puppet shows
Appendix 3 Example of subtitles for clip from School of Rock References Films and other audiovisual material

Index

DOI: 10.14324/111.9781787357105

Number of illustrations: 19

Publication date: 14 January 2021

PDF ISBN: 9781787357105

EPUB ISBN: 9781787357136

Hardback ISBN: 9781787357129

Paperback ISBN: 9781787357112

‘Zárate and her book will be a welcome ally to the captioning cause.’ Choice

‘A valuable contribution to both Translation Studies and Accessibility Studies since it deals with [subtitling for the d/Deaf and hard of hearing] SDH as an [audiovisual translation] AVT modality in its own right and describes its intended users in a thorough manner. For that reason, it is likely to become a reference textbook in these fields. The fact that an open access version of the book is available from the University College London Press website is also remarkable. This makes the book more easily reachable by different stakeholders incorporating access services in their cultural projects, which speaks of the potential social impact of the publication.’
The Journal of Specialised Translation (JoSTrans)

‘Zárate is both an experienced SDH practitioner and a skilled researcher, and she visibly excels at combining both roles in this monograph.’
Hikma

Extra resources for Captioning and Subtitling for d/Deaf and Hard of Hearing Audiences

Listen to Soledad Zárate discuss Captioning and Subtitling for d/Deaf and Hard of Hearing Audiences on the En sincronía podcast (in Spanish).

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