IN THIS ISSUE...
Editorial
Media Accessibility:
Issues and Standards of Audio Visual Translation in Spain and Beyond
Hassan Mustapha
Alhosn University
The impact of Spanish Language in Southern
Europe has enriched literature not just in that corner of the world but
extended to the World Wide Web. Spanish competes with French, German and
English as a language of communication and education. Overseas demand
for learning the language for cultural and applied purposes is
overtaking the availability of qualified teachers, translators and
interpreters. Witness in this respect the contributions being made by
the Cervantes Institute both in Spain itself and abroad.
Given the rich complexity of current day
Spanish with all the depth of its history, this volume takes a wise
course of action by focusing mainly on vital communication areas of
Media Accessibility and Audiovisual Translation.
Away from Spain but staying with the media
thread and in a part of the world with strong historical links with the
country, this volume turns its attention to digital developments in the
media and the current screen oriented Arab “society characterized by its
young population” with a wide ranging interest in “infotainment” and a
growing use of digital sources, at the expense of printed media, as well
as primary fixed line or mobile telephones and gradually, radio
broadcasts....
Research on Subtitling for
the Deaf and Hard of Hearing: TOP SECRET?
Verónica Arnáiz
Universidad de Valladolid
Spain
Research on Audiovisual Translation has
lately enjoyed a boom in academia due to the great increase in the market
of multimedia products and technological advances. In many countries such
as Spain, where dubbing has traditionally been the official translation
technique, subtitling, a minor and socially marked discipline, is claiming
its place. The increasing social awareness for universal accessibility has
given rise to a specific subtitling practice for those with hearing
problems: the Subtitling for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing (SDHH). This
discipline, first practised in Spain in the early 1990s, has scarcely been
studied and, thus, its research is in its infancy. The practice is not
easy to classify given the lack of a theoretical framework which leads us
to a vastly heterogeneous output. This paper provides a brief overview of
the practice in Spain and explains the difficulties encountered when
tackling research. The outcome is an attempt to map the situation in Spain
which ironically comes to the conclusion that a discipline purporting to
promote accessibility has in fact become a ‘restricted area’ of study: A
Top Secret.
Teaching Proposals for the
Unit “Subtitling for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing” within the Subject
Audiovisual Translation (English>Spanish)
Ana Pereira and Lourdes Lorenzo
Universidade de Vigo
Spain
The teaching of translation, an activity
that positions itself mainly in the sphere of praxis, must be carried out
through a combination of theory, phenomenological description,
professional case studies and critical analyses of actual translations and
translation processes (Hurtado, 1999; Bartrina, 2001; Gentzler, 2003;
Kelly, 2005). Bearing this educational framework in mind, and following
the line of previous work (Lorenzo and Pereira, in press), our intention
is to suggest different teaching approaches for the unit “Subtitling for
the Deaf and Hard of Hearing” (SDH), included in the subject Audiovisual
Translation (English>Spanish) taught as part of the Translation and
Interpreting Degree offered by the Universidade de Vigo (Spain). Since
this unit has only recently been added to the audiovisual translation
syllabus in Spanish universities, we believe this can be useful as a
springboard for new activities. We will begin by locating the SDH unit
within the subject and within the curriculum, and we will then set out the
unit’s specific objectives and contents. To conclude, we will describe the
teaching methods applied, and we will provide examples of those tasks we
consider most appropriate in order for students to acquire a basic
knowledge of SDH.
Audio Description in
Catalonia
Anna Matamala
Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona
When talking about audio description (AD),
one normally thinks about the United Kingdom, the United States and
Germany as three of the most active countries, being English and German
the languages used. However, Spain —and Catalonia in particular— should
not be underestimated since AD is gaining momentum and more and more
projects —both professional and academic— are being carried out. This
article aims to review the state of the art of AD in Catalonia, and more
specifically the state of the art of AD in Catalan, in order to give it
the place it deserves in the international arena.
Audio Description
Precursors: Ekphrasis and Narrators
Joaquim Pujol and Pilar Orero
Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona
This article looks at two audio description
techniques widely used since the beginning of television. While it is true
that research in the field has just started, with no PhD to date, we
believe we should take into consideration the many studies and range of
experience which already exist, since this may shed some light on the
topic and broaden the insight of new research. We believe that much can be
learned and put into good use from those observations made by classical
scholars instead of developing a new terminology and inventing new
parameters for what seems to be considered a new practice.
Media Accessibility
Standards in Spain
José Luis Fuertes and Loïc Martínez
School of Computer Science
Universidad Politécnica de Madrid
Standards play an important role in the goal
of universal usability: they can specify accessibility requirements for
products and services and they are essential for legislation, public
procurement and education. This paper presents current media
accessibility-related standardization activities in Spain, developed by
AENOR. Specifically, these are the standards for teletext subtitling in
television (UNE 153010:2003), audio description (UNE 153020:2005), sign
language in computing networks (PNE 139804) and web content accessibility
(UNE 139803:2004). The paper concludes with a description of future work
for these four standards.
Audiovisual Translation in
the Arab World: A Changing Scene
Muhammad Y Gamal
University of New South Wales
The digital revolution of the 1990s has
changed the way people see and seek information and education. Today in
the Arab world, many people resort to screens to get their information, to
do their business and to seek entertainment. This paper examines the
changing scene where Arabic is being adapted to the digital applications
of the new era of multimedia, online sites of major newspapers, satellite
channels and DVDs. It highlights the significance of the audiovisual
culture in a society characterized by its young population.
The Translator as Editor:
Subtitle Translations for Chinese Films
Leong Ko
The University of Queensland
Much has been said about the features and
constraints and guidelines for film subtitle translation. It is commonly
acknowledged that subtitle translations are influenced by factors such as
time, space on the screen, and speed of dialogue. Some research in this
field has therefore suggested that film subtitling is really a combination
of translation and interpreting, or more interpreting than translation (or
even sight translation), as it is claimed that some subtitle translations
bear more similarity to interpreting methods than to translation. However,
in practice, the subtitle translator works with retrievable material, be
it written scripts in print, subtitles on the screen or movie dialogue.
The translator has plenty of time and opportunity to retrieve such
material in the source language in order to change, modify, correct and
polish the translation. This situation is therefore completely different
from interpreting, where the interpreter has essentially only one
immediate chance to deliver an interpretation of the speaker’s words. The
research presented in this article looks into the practice of subtitling
for Chinese films as well as the practices of a Chinese film distributor
in Australia in dealing with subtitle translation before screening Chinese
films. The result of the research suggests that film subtitling exhibits
the characteristics of editing. This editing role is played by the
translator or the film distributor.
Book Review
Gary D. Robson's The Closed Captioning Handbook
Ali Darwish
Central Queensland University
Several
research papers and a handful of books have been published on media
accessibility in the last three decades, but perhaps none since Robert G.
Baker’s groundbreaking publication Handbook for Television Subtitlers
(1984) rises to The Closed Captioning Handbook in quality, variety,
detail and above all recency. As the world moves towards open multimedia
systems, increased global connectivity and real-time interactivity, new
issues of accessibility arise which leave both seasoned specialists and
beginners puzzled by the pace of technological advances and the complexity
of human needs for accessible media. Old technologies are quickly being
phased out and new readily available and easy to use software is enabling
specialists and amateurs alike to provide captions and subtitles in both
monolingual and bilingual environments. Looking for answers, one should
not go farther than the present publication. A handbook indeed—rather a
treasure box that contains a wealth of information about various aspects
of closed captioning.
