Immersive, Creative, Inclusive: Areas of cross-fertilization between accessible captions for D/deaf audiences for the stage and for the screen

Mevel, Pierre-Alexis; Robinson, Jo; Tennent, Paul

Abstract

In a deliberate and valiant effort to adapt to the conditions created by the recent pandemic, many theatre companies across the globe shifted their activities from the stage to online video platforms. But in releasing large portions of their back-catalogues at speed, opportunities to make such shows accessible have been under-exploited. This migration has created an unprecedented opportunity to examine the way accessible practices are transferred from stage to screen and has brought into sharp focus the somewhat inadequate provision for accessibility of online video platforms. While the very practice of making these shows available online, often at no cost to the viewer, has made them more socially accessible, practical accessibility for portions of the audience, such as the D/deaf community, has often been ignored or addressed in a low fidelity way. Through lack of time, lack of expertise or lack of resources, many companies have resorted to the use of auto-captioning tools, or the most basic of captions. Rarely do such captions come close to capturing the creativity of the shows they represent. This paper represents a call to arms for the development of bespoke tools to support better, more immersive and creative, retroactive captioning of stage productions presented as videos.

Citation

Mevel, P.-A., Robinson, J., & Tennent, P. (2022). Immersive, Creative, Inclusive: Areas of cross-fertilization between accessible captions for D/deaf audiences for the stage and for the screen. Journal of Audiovisual Translation, 5(2), 176-193. https://doi.org/10.47476/jat.v5i2.2022.227

• Journal Article Type: Article
• Acceptance Date: Nov 15, 2022
• Online Publication Date: Dec 21, 2022
• Publication Date: 2022
• Deposit Date: Jan 5, 2023
• Publicly Available Date: Jan 5, 2023
• Journal: Journal of Audiovisual Translation
• Print ISSN: 2617-9148
• Publisher: European Association for Studies in Screen Translation
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• Volume: 5
• Issue: 2
• Pages: 176-193.
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.47476/jat.v5i2.2022.227
• Keywords: General Medicine; General Chemistry
• Public URL: https://nottingham-repository.worktribe.com/output/15170123
• Publisher URL: https://www.jatjournal.org/index.php/jat/article/view/227