Title
AD and SDH on Portuguese state-sponsored channels. State of play and where to?
Conference name
Media for All 10 Conference
City
Country
Belgium
Date
06/07/2023-07/07/2023
Abstract
The development of Media Accessibility (MA) has brought to the fore concerns with the inclusion of people with disabilities in all walks of life, from the traditional audiovisual contexts (e.g. TV and cinema) to other cultural and historical venues, including other life events, such as births, weddings, and the like. These concerns stemmed from the fact that, in the 1980s and 1990s, attention was focused on the need for television channels and cinema houses to provide accessible programming including then subtitling for the deaf and hard-of-hearing (SDH) and audiodescription (AD), and later respeaking. While the USA and the UK were the pioneers internationally, other European countries slowly engaged in such practices and developed guidelines to cater for these needs. One such case is Germany where Bernd Benecke (from Bayerischer Rundfunk) has been a reference in MA when it comes to AD in TV programmes.
As a result, accessibility television services have become a legal requirement worldwide, particularly in European countries, since the early 2000s. In her ground-breaking survey, Remael (2007) has identified that different countries go through different histories, traditions and priorities with a direct impact on how much SDH each country produces and broadcasts and the procedures it follows. The data collected by Reviers (2016) seems to indicate similar circumstances regarding Audiodescription.
In this paper, we will focus on the case of Portugal, and in particular the state-sponsored channel RTP, in order to offer a more in-depth look into how the accessibility services developed, their current practices and priorities as well as the SDH and AD professionals’ working conditions and main challenges.
As in other countries, the development of SDH in Portugal has largely coincided with the introduction of teletext and was initiated by the channel under analysis which has played a vital role in recruiting and training local teams of experts, as well as developing and disseminating working practices both internally and externally. In the context of the project AVT Accessibility in Portugal, data has been collected via a questionnaire and follow-up in-depth/qualitative interviews with the different SDH and AD in-house professionals employed at RTP. Preliminary analysis points towards particular linguistic, technological and internal communication challenges, lack of training, and lack of guidelines updates, and that professionals may tend not to identify themselves as translators. It also indicates a lack of knowledge-sharing among European television channels. Finally, it has been possible to note difficult access to the target communities which professionals try to compensate for by having, in the case of AD, blind consultants that check translations.
In sum, we will seek to provide a thorough description of RTP’s team of translators in terms of their training, previous experience, work procedures, and relation to SDH and AD guidelines and target audiences. This will be complemented with selected information retrieved from the qualitative interviews. Based on this preliminary analysis, we aim to critically reflect on the overall situation and suggest a series of recommendations for moving forward, including conducting a reception-oriented study.
As a result, accessibility television services have become a legal requirement worldwide, particularly in European countries, since the early 2000s. In her ground-breaking survey, Remael (2007) has identified that different countries go through different histories, traditions and priorities with a direct impact on how much SDH each country produces and broadcasts and the procedures it follows. The data collected by Reviers (2016) seems to indicate similar circumstances regarding Audiodescription.
In this paper, we will focus on the case of Portugal, and in particular the state-sponsored channel RTP, in order to offer a more in-depth look into how the accessibility services developed, their current practices and priorities as well as the SDH and AD professionals’ working conditions and main challenges.
As in other countries, the development of SDH in Portugal has largely coincided with the introduction of teletext and was initiated by the channel under analysis which has played a vital role in recruiting and training local teams of experts, as well as developing and disseminating working practices both internally and externally. In the context of the project AVT Accessibility in Portugal, data has been collected via a questionnaire and follow-up in-depth/qualitative interviews with the different SDH and AD in-house professionals employed at RTP. Preliminary analysis points towards particular linguistic, technological and internal communication challenges, lack of training, and lack of guidelines updates, and that professionals may tend not to identify themselves as translators. It also indicates a lack of knowledge-sharing among European television channels. Finally, it has been possible to note difficult access to the target communities which professionals try to compensate for by having, in the case of AD, blind consultants that check translations.
In sum, we will seek to provide a thorough description of RTP’s team of translators in terms of their training, previous experience, work procedures, and relation to SDH and AD guidelines and target audiences. This will be complemented with selected information retrieved from the qualitative interviews. Based on this preliminary analysis, we aim to critically reflect on the overall situation and suggest a series of recommendations for moving forward, including conducting a reception-oriented study.