[LTA intro music]
LiveTextAccess.
Training for real-time intralingual subtitlers.
This is Unit 1. Understanding accessibility.
Element 3. Embedding accessibility in working environments.
This video lecture assumes that real-time subtitlers are co-creators
of accessible working environments.
For this reason, we describe the profile holistically.
This means beyond mere linguistic skills
or skills related to a single technique,
be it respeaking or velotyping.
My name is Rocío Bernabé
from the Internationale Hochschule SDI München in Germany.
I have prepared this video lecture
in collaboration with the European Federation of Hard of Hearing,
in short, EFHOH.
On completion of the training sequence, you will be able to explain the role
and competences of real-time subtitlers
as mediators in real-time communication.
Let's take a look at the agenda.
First, we will look into the task itself.
We will answer the question:
What do real-time subtitlers do?
Then, we will discuss the single competence areas related to the profile.
To do so,
we will use data obtained in an online survey
conducted within the framework of the LTA project
and from the research in the field.
We will end the video lecture with a summary.
What is real-time subtitling?
Is it translating, interpreting, mediating?
...All of it?
The role of real-time subtitlers
in the creation of accessible working environments
is to produce meaning for those who cannot access a message
in the original form.
In our case, the barrier is a lack of access to the audio mode.
The linguistic scholar and educational expert Bessi Dendrinos (2014: 143)
uses the term "mediation agent"
to describe the party that takes over the task
of making meaning accessible.
The concept of "mediation" has also been studied
in translation for both intralingual and interlingual communication.
For example, Pym (2018) distinguishes between
"translation" as written mediation and "interpreting" as spoken mediation
in situations that involve more than one language.
Katan (2013: 84) also refers to interlingual mediation
but he also describes mediation as an intervention to support
vulnerable cultural groups to ensure their rights.
All these approaches point at the presence
of a "third party" in the communication situation.
In our case, this third party is often a person, a real-time subtitler.
However, this third party could also be a translation machine
or even combinations of both,
i.e., a human and a machine taking over the mediation role.
An example would be,
for instance, at an international conference
in which subtitles are presented in different languages.
To do this, the intralingual subtitles created by a real-time subtitler
may be sent to an automatic translation engine,
for instance, Google,
which translates the subtitles into different languages
that are then displayed on separate screens at the conference.
Lastly, the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages
defines "mediation"
in the same way and includes translation, interpretation,
a paraphrase, summary or record, as possible realisation strategies.
Now that we have a definition of the task,
the question is: what competences and skills
do prospective professionals need to develop
and acquire to fulfil this mediation task?
To study this question, we conducted an online survey
within the framework of the LTA project.
The answers suggest a series of skills and competences
that are linked to the profile.
A total of 121 persons participated in the survey.
The geographical distribution was wide
with participants from Europe, the USA, and Asia-Pacific.
Participants' profiles covered a wide spectrum
of relevant stakeholders in the field,
which included professionals,
who accounted for a 64%,
end-users (24%),
service providers which accounted for a 14%,
and trainers and prospective students (with 11% each).
The collected data shows
that real-time subtitling is a multi-faceted process
requiring skills beyond mere linguistic ones.
These findings agree with those by scholars such as Katan (2009),
who uses the term “levels”
to describe the different competence areas of the profile.
Real-time intralingual subtitlers use their linguistic knowledge
and language awareness to produce the text in the target language.
They re-create meaning using linguistic structures
while respecting grammar and mechanics,
and ensuring the accuracy of the message.
To mediate across cultures,
real-time subtitlers need background knowledge
about accessibility,
specific users’ needs and working contexts.
This knowledge enables them
to choose the right strategy to convey a particular meaning,
for instance, by either implementing verbatim or sensatim subtitles.
Lastly, real-time subtitlers depend on their tools
and need to effectively master them,
be this a speech-recognition software or a keyboard, such as Velotype.
The survey also brought into light other competence areas
less studied and trained:
managerial, interpersonal, and personal skills.
Many real-time subtitlers work as freelancers.
The data provided in the survey showed that 72.5% of the participants
in the survey work as freelancers.
As such, they are entrepreneurs
who should also have basic organisational, accounting and interpersonal skills
to both acquire new clients and interact with customers.
Lastly, personal skills.
These skills refer to the ability
to be resilient in stressful situations,
to concentrate and stay focused,
and, above all, to stay healthy.
Summary.
To recap, we can say that real-time subtitlers are co-creators
of accessibility.
To fulfil their role as mediation agents
they need to develop and acquire both transversal skills
and skills related to a specific technique,
be it respeaking or typing, in our case; velotyping.
The LTA curriculum suggests grouping this set of skills
into the following competence areas:
The general ones are:
Understanding accessibility and target users;
Linguistic competence, IT competence,
Entrepreneurship and Service competence.
The technical ones are: Respeaking or Velotyping competences.
If you want to know more,
please visit our webpage:
www.LTAproject.eu
Exercises.
The exercises for this video lecture are in the Trainer’s Guide
and the PowerPoint file.
[LTA outro music]
LTA - LiveTextAccess.
Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona.
SDI - Internationale Hochschule.
Scuola Superiore per Mediatori Linguistici.
ZDFDigital.
The European Federation of Hard of Hearing People - EFHOH.
VELOTYPE.
SUB-TI ACCESS.
European Certification and Qualification Association - ECQA.
Co-funded by the Erasmus+ Programme of the European Union.
Erasmus+ Project:
2018-1-DE01-KA203-004218.
The information and views set on this presentation
are those of the authors
and do not necessarily reflect the official opinion
of the European Union.
Neither the European Union institutions and bodies
nor any person acting on their behalf
may be held responsible for the use
which may be made of the information contained here.