EASIT: Easy access for social inclusion training.
This is Unit 3B: Easy to understand and audio description.
Element 1: Processes.
Video lecture: What are easy to understand audio subtitles.
I am Elisa Perego, from Università degli Studi di Trieste.
In this video lecture I will define audio subtitles,
and suggest ways to simplify them.
Think of the German-American miniseries Unorthodox,
about a girl rejecting her radicalised upbringing.
In the series, there is a constant code-switching
from Yiddish, to English, to German.
In the original version,
Yiddish and German are subtitled in English.
But how can subtitles be accessed
by a person with sight loss or dyslexia,
by a slow reader,
by a person far away from the screen
or by anyone doing something in another room?
There is only one solution: conveying subtitles orally.
Which means reading them aloud
and integrating them with AD.
Audio subtitles are as short and focused as subtitles.
But this does not mean they are easy to understand.
How can audio subtitles be more understandable?
We can briefly introduce them
to offer background to the user and prevent confusion.
A short text in easy-to-understand language
written on screen and read aloud can do.
For example: "This film includes audio subtitles".
"Audio subtitles are subtitles read aloud".
In fully audio subtitled films,
using multiple, acted voices for each character
helps us better enjoy, understand and remember the film.
Human-voiced audio subtitles should be preferred
to text-to-speech audio subtitles.
In fact, texto-to-speech audio subtitles
can interfere negatively with the listening experience.
Another solution is adapting the subtitle formulation
if the subtitles are too complex.
To do so, you can merge subtitles for the deaf and hard of hearing
with easy-to-understand principles.
Let's take the subtitle from the film I, Tonya.
I am so sorry, but there is no smoking on the ice.
It can become a third-person audio subtitle:
The teacher kindly asks LaVona not to smoke on the ice rink.
The apology I am so sorry is replaced by an adverb: kindly.
The adjunct on the ice, whose meaning is clearer if the visuals are accessed,
is replaced by an expression that refers explicitly
to the area of ice for skating: the ice rink.
If ice rink is too jergal,
ice-skating spot can be a simpler choice.
If the audio subtitle is too long
the adverb kindly can be removed,
without major content consequences.
Easy-to-understand audio subtitlers can consider
the main issues of struggling users,
like their poor lexical and structural knowledge.
A solution is choosing mainly high frequency words,
short declarative sentences,
or normalising idiomatic formulations.
Back to the smoking example,
direct speech can be used.
Teacher: It is forbidden to smoke here,
with a word reduction from 11 to 7.
We know that reduction affects the interpersonal function of language.
Restoring it through intonation,
a kind mellow one in this case,
is crucial.
In general, avoiding a flat style
and using all the prosodic possibilities of the human voice
can ensure that E2U audio subtitles
really catch the attention of the listener.
On a more technical level,
we could consider allowing the user
to manage the volume of the audio subtitles
separately from the volume of the original sound.
Many more solutions exist.
The topic is wide, there are many factors to explore,
and many questions to answer.
I will conclude with a couple:
Would automatic audio subtitling work
in an easy-to-understand context?
And, can we really consider using synthetic voices
in contexts where involvement and clarity are a priority?
All the pictures used in this presentation
come from the Public Domain Vectors website,
which gathers hundreds or royalty-free vector images
under the Creative Commons Universal Public Domain Dedication licence.
This video lecture was prepared by Elisa Perego
and produced by Andreea Deleanu
from Università degli Studi di Trieste,
with the help of Ester Hedberg and Anna Matamala.
You can reach me at eperego@units.it.