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EASIT: Easy Access
for Social Inclusion Training
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This is unit 1, Media accessibility;
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element 4,
What is media accessibility?;
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video lecture
"What is media accessibility?".
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I am Anna Matamala, from
Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona.
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In this lecture I will talk
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about the notion
of media accessibility
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and how it relates to other concepts
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such as audiovisual translation
or accessibility.
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Media accessibility was born
in the field of audiovisual translation
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(AVT for short).
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AVT is a branch
of translation studies
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that deals
with the transfer of audiovisual texts.
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At the beginning,
terminology was quite unsettled
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and, in the literature,
you will find
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terms such as
"constrained translation",
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"film translation",
"screen translation",
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"media translation",
"multimedia translation", etc.
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In the end,
"audiovisual translation"
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gained ground and is now used
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to refer
to different transcreation modes
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in the audiovisual world.
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At the beginning,
AVT put the emphasis
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on transfer modes such as dubbing,
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subtitling, voice-over or interpreting
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in traditional media
such as cinema or television.
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At the turn of the century
some scholars started to show
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an interest in other modes which
are more related to accessibility.
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For instance,
audio description (AD for short)
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or subtitling for the deaf
and hard of hearing (SDH for short).
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The conference In So Many Words,
held in London in 2004,
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and the first
Media for All conference,
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held in Barcelona in 2005,
were a landmark:
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AD and SDH
were definitively included
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in the AVT agenda.
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"Media accessibility"
at the beginning
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referred mainly to AD and SDH,
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but it then expanded to include
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sign language interpreting
or audio subtitling.
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One may wonder
how same-language SDH
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or audio description
can be seen as translation.
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Well, the typical reply is
to refer to Jakobson's seminal work,
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where he differentiates
between intralingual,
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interlingual and intersemiotic
categories of translation.
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SDH can be an example
of intralingual translation,
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in which translation takes place
into other signs of the same language.
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Dubbing would be an example
of interlingual translation,
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in which translation takes place
into another language.
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Audio description could be seen
as an intersemiotic translation.
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Although Jakobson
considers intersemiotic translation
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a transfer from verbal signs
into nonverbal sign systems,
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we could expand this definition
and include exactly the opposite,
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that is, the translation
of nonverbal signs into words,
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which is
what audio description is all about.
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In 2005, issue number 4
of the journal Translating Today
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included a paper
where Jorge Díaz-Cintas
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took a different approach
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and advocated
for the concept of "accessibility"
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as a unifying term,
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a concept that Pilar Orero and I
embraced in a 2007 article.
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We put forward that in order
to produce an accessible opera
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you need to overcome
both sensorial and linguistic barriers.
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With this approach,
media accessibility
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is not only
for persons with disabilities,
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but also for people
who may not understand a language.
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In the words of Gian Maria Greco,
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media accessibility would concern
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"media products,
services, and environments
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for all persons who cannot,
or cannot completely,
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access them in their original form".
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If we have a look at MAP,
the Media Accessibility Platform,
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you will see that this broad concept
guided its creation.
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MAP adopts a holistic approach
and considers a wide range
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of access services or modalities:
dubbing, voice-over,
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subtitling in different forms
(live subtitling, respeaking,
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SDH, surtitling, etc.),
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audio description, audio subtitling,
media interpreting
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(including sign language
interpreting).
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Similarly,
when Pablo Romero-Fresco proposes
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his concept
of "accessible filmmaking",
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he thinks about integrating
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both traditional
audiovisual translation modes
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and access services as part
of a film production process,
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rather than
as a postproduction task.
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These approaches,
in which media accessibility
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is part of AVT or equals AVT,
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are what Gian Maria Greco
calls "particularist" accounts.
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However, some scholars
consider that media accessibility
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is wider than AVT
and cannot be reduced
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to a sub-area
of translation studies.
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This third approach,
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a "universalist account"
in Greco's terminology,
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considers that media accessibility
is a broad interdisciplinary area
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that overlaps with many fields,
including AVT.
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Media accessibility
is seen as a proper subdomain
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of a new field
called Accessibility Studies.
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There is still a lot of room
for further development
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of these concepts
from a theoretical point of view.
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In a book I published in 2019,
I took a very simple approach.
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First, I consider
that the same phenomenon
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can be approached
from different perspectives.
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Secondly, I think
that "media accessibility"
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may not be the most adequate term:
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using the simple word "media"
may imply
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that other media
beyond the audiovisual world
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are included and, at the same time,
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may leave out
relevant audiovisual content
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such as scenic arts performances.
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This is why I prefer to establish
a parallel with audiovisual translation
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and talk about
"audiovisual accessibility".
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Audiovisual translation would be
part of Translation Studies,
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and audiovisual accessibility
would be part of Accessibility Studies.
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Any of the access services
or audiovisual transfer modes
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I have mentioned before could be
analysed from both perspectives.
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Another interesting concept is
that of "accessible communication"
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or "barrier-free communication",
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an approach often taken
by German-speaking scholars.
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The focus is put not just
on audiovisual content or on media
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but on communication as a whole,
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which needs
to be barrier-free or accessible for all.
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The emphasis is put
not just on persons with disabilities
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but on everybody.
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This approach considers
not only traditional transfer modes
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but also new media
accessibility services,
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easy language and related concepts.
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This video lecture
has been prepared by Anna Matamala,
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from
Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona.
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You can reach me
at anna.matamala@uab.cat.
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Picture. Source:
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Greco, G. M. (2019).
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Accessibility Studies:
Abuses, Misuses
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and the Method of Poietic Design.
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In C. Stephanidis (ed.),
HCI International 2019 ,
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Lecture Notes in Computer Science,
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vol. 11786.
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Cham: Springer, pp. 15-27.
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The project EASIT
has received funding
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from the European Commission
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under the Erasmus+
Strategic Partnerships
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for Higher Education programme,
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grant agreement
2018-1-ES01-KA203-05275.
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The European Commission support
for the production of this publication
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does not constitute
an endorsement of the contents,
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which reflect
the views only of the authors,
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and the Commission
cannot be held responsible
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for any use which may be made
of the information contained therein.
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This work is licensed
under a Creative Commons
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Attribution-ShareAlike
4.0 International License.
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Partners of the EASIT project:
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Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona,
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Università degli Studi di Trieste,
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Universidade de Vigo,
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Stiftung Universität Hildesheim,
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SDI München,
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Dyslexiförbundet,
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Radiotelevisija Slovenija,
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Zavod Risa.
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EASIT: Easy Access
for Social Inclusion Training