EASIT. Easy Access for Social Inclusion Training.
This is Unit 3A, Easy to understand and subtitling
element 1, Processes
videolecture, Sample 3:
Case study of SDH simplification
following E2U principles.
I am Luis Alonso, from Universidade de Vigo, in Spain
and in this short video lecture
created by my colleague Ana Pereira-Rodríguez
I will be illustrating some characteristics
of E2U Spanish subtitles.
This video presents a case study that concerns the creation
of E2U interlingual subtitles
for an informative video.
Both Easy-to-Read recommendations
and those for subtitles for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing
have been followed to prepare the materials in this sample.
The original video was created
within the framework of the project Begriplig text
which means "understandable text" in Swedish.
The project aimed to provide recommendations
about how to convey easy-to-read and easy-to-understand information.
You can watch the original video
with standard English subtitles
at the URL on the screen.
The video is entitled
"Textmakthavare Camilla möter Christina NV."
We would like to thank our partner Ester Hedberg and Camilla
for providing us with the necessary rights.
Before watching the video
let me put forward some characteristics of the subtitles.
Regarding the visual presentation
the subtitles are displayed in the lower bottom part of the video
over a black background to ensure good contrast.
Subtitles have a maximum of 2 lines of 37 characters each.
The display time is of about 10 characters per second.
This is within the SDH recommendation
of a maximum of 15 characters per second.
As for the text font
we have used the sans-serif font-type Verdana
size 39.
Our two-line subtitles are centred and not left-aligned
because we were not able to record them this way
and use the colour codes and borders at the same time.
However, we recommend left-alignment
as in any E2U text.
Regarding the editorial aspects, subtitles follow the recommendations
put forward in the video lectures on this topic
elaborated by Rocío Bernabé Caro and Piero Cavallo
from SDI München, in Germany
and Sergio Hernández from the University of Hildesheim.
We have used simple sentences
the present tense almost always and the active voice
and have avoided special characters.
For instance, we have eliminated the three dots used in the original
and the dashes in the dialogues because we used colours instead.
We have also eliminated the per cent sign
in "13% of all Swedish adults"
and we used "algunos adultos suecos" instead.
The abbreviation "MSB"
which stands for "Swedish Civil Contingencies Agency"
has been eliminated
and "una agencia de emergencias" has been used instead.
Another characteristic of this sample
is that sentences follow the Subject-Verb-Object order
as closely as possible.
Whenever possible, we have created lines and subtitles
that comprise one sentence and one idea.
But, in some cases, we couldn’t
so we have split sentences into two lines or two subtitles.
Segmentation was done carefully
bearing in mind that some groups of words
should remain together.
Lastly, the original has the difficult word "aphasia."
As you will see, we have simplified it by explaining it.
To do so, it has been replaced by
"Me ayuda a usar el lenguaje. Tengo dificultades para leer".
We have used one of the techniques
from the Deaf and Hard of Hearing subtitling
to identify speakers
in order to avoid possible ambiguity as to who is speaking.
This technique consists of using different colours for different speakers
so we used the yellow for Christina and the green for Camilla.
Titles and inserts are displayed in white in our subtitles.
Apart from identifying speakers
contextual information is also music, sounds
and suprasegmental or prosodic features.
In this video, background music can be heard.
However, it adds no relevant or necessary information
to understand the message.
That is why we did not add this contextual feature.
Finally, as far as prosodic features are concerned
Camilla’s aphasia affects not only reading of texts
but also production of speech.
This feature can be marked introducing a descriptive tag.
However, we think that it is neither necessary, nor relevant
as the video deals with Camilla’s problems
when reading and how to solve them.
E2U recommendations
together with those of subtitling for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing
are a good point of departure to elaborate this type of subtitling.
We consider of special relevance: First, those related to reading speed
which should be a slow and confortable one.
Second, those related to a careful and accurate segmentation
which promotes a better understanding of the message.
And, finally, those related to the inclusion
of contextual information when it is needed and relevant.
This video lecture has been prepared by Ana Pereira-Rodríguez
from Universidade de Vigo.
You can reach her at pereira@uvigo.es.
We have worked together with SDI München, in Germany.
EASIT has received funding from the EC programme
Erasmus+ Strategic Partnerships for Higher Education
grant agreement 2018-1-ES01-KA203-05275.
The EC support for this publication
does not endorse the contents
which reflect the authors' views.
The EC cannot be held responsible
for any use of the information contained therein.
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution
ShareAlike 4.0 International License.
Partners of the EASIT project.
Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona.
Università Degli Studi Di Trieste.
Universidade de Vigo.
Stiftung Universität Hildesheim.
SDI München.
Dyslexiförbundet.
Radiotelevizija Slovenja.
Zavod RISA.
EASIT. Easy Access for Social Inclusion Training.