Subtitles for Deaf Viewers – What Are They Exactly? Anna Jankowska, Agnieszka Szarkowska Resources on the Internet are so rich that they provide numerous benefits for their users, ranging from information to entertainment. Recently more and more often on the Internet one can find both sound and image, e.g. the Internet TV or films. A question arises then whether such content takes into account needs of all the Internet users? There are very few people in Poland who have never seen such cult comedies as Sexmission (Polish original Seksmisja) or Teddy Bear (Polish original Miś). Yet we should remember that there is a group of people who did not have full access to audiovisual materials not because they did not want to, but because of their disability or because the materials were not adjusted to their needs1. For persons with hearing disability who live in Poland the time has stopped at the time of silent cinema so they cannot fully take advantage of audiovisual resources that other people use for entertainment, for scientific purposes or to enliven the classes they teach. It turns out that the audiovisual resources can be accessible to people with hearing disability. How to properly create subtitles for them?
Types of subtitles One of the most important and the most controversial aspects of subtitles for deaf persons is whether subtitles should be word-to-word, that is if they should include every word of the soundtrack or whether they should be shortened as in subtitles translated from foreign languages. It should be mentioned that there are different people with hearing disability. They can be roughly divided into two groups. The first group is people born deaf and those who lost hearing before they learnt to speak. The other group is people whose problems with hearing started after they learnt to speak Polish. Because of different linguistic experiences
Editor’s note: Since in Poland main emphasis is put on creating subtitles for films broadcast mostly on DVD carriers and on TV, standards for creating subtitles for deaf persons discussed in this text should also refer to other audio/video materials on the Internet. 1
these people may have a different degree of ability to understand a written text2 .
Different perspectives Broadcasters in Poland preparing subtitles for deaf and hard of hearing persons have so far quoted the argument that people who were born deaf can read more slowly and have a more limited vocabulary than people whose problems with hearing started later in life. That is why they tended to choose simplified and shortened subtitles. Now, thanks to lobbying of organizations of people with hearing disability and thanks to results of scientific research the situation has begun to change slowly. More and more often subtitles reflect dialogues more closely. It is very important because many Polish viewers who are hard of hearing or deaf demand word-to-word subtitles and they are very strongly against any cuts in dialogues. Many of them claim that any modification of subtitles deprives them of an opportunity to experience the real atmosphere of the program. They also protest against simplified vocabulary because they argue that they use subtitles to learn Polish. Last but not least, many of them want to get a product identical with the product provided to hearing viewers. It is not always possible to render the Editor’s note: For people who were born deaf their first language is sign language, and the second is Polish. Unfortunately, the Polish system of early support for development of deaf children and their parents as well as the system of education do not take sign language into account. Recent scientific research shows that early communication by means of sign language supports development of deaf children and has a positive impact on the child’s competences of understanding the written form of Polish (it is called a strategy of bilingualism). Ignoring sign language in development of deaf children and simplifying vocabulary in Polish enhances difficulties that deaf persons may have in understanding Polish. People whose problems with hearing started later in life (after they started speaking) mostly use Polish.
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Equality News 1 (2)/2013
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