SUPPORT FOR ACCESS TO AUDIOVISUAL MEDIA (SAAM) IS AN INCLUSIVE AND INNOVATIVE LANGUAGE-LEARNING PROJECT

 

Providing subtitles for audiovisual materials to mainly, but not exclusively, charitable and non-profit organisations.

Our Work

Since the start of the project, in 2016, SAAM has helped seven organisations at local, national and international levels enabling the Deaf and Hard of Hearing community to engage with local history and help charity workers, locally and in developing countries, by providing subtitles in audiovisual materials.

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Awards

Student Benefits.

  • SAAM enhances employability prospects using professional subtitling software and ddds another skill set for the UEA Award Programme.

  • The programme promotes creativity, expands linguistic skills whilst improving understanding of translational ethics and professional standards.

  • Subtitles can be prepared in advanced, using specific software or for some TV programmes, such chat shows, news or sports, they are prepared using a technique called respeaking. This is also called real time subtitling and is similar to simultaneous translation. The respeaker repeats everything being said in the same language and this speech is then processed by voice recognition software that turns the speech into written subtitles.

  • Subtitles are limited to a specific number of characters (around 38 characters per line) in a maximum of two lines which are subject to a specific reading speed (between 160 to 180 words per minute). The speeds vary according to the type of audience, such as the Deaf and Hard of Hearing, children, foreign language users that the subtitles have been created for.

  • These challenges are related to translation and culture-bound terms are a good example. How can English terms such “afternoon tea” or “bank holiday” be translated into other languages?

  • Conveying what is spoken, subtleties of language as well as cultural elements and nuances are very challenging tasks. As a consequence, the subtitler needs to master not only the language being translated, but also his/her first language.

“SAAM are advancing learning by increasing accessibility of educational materials”

— Amy Travis Founder, Child Protection Toolkit