Accessibility Mainstreaming and Beyond – Senior Citizens as Secondary Users of Audio Subtitles in Cinemas

Abstract

Audiovisual accessibility is traditionally seen as a means of providing access for people with sensory impairments, be it sight or hearing loss (Orero, 2004). Recently, a much broader perspective opened as some also see it as a way of providing linguistic accessibility (Díaz Cintas, 2005; Orero & Matamala, 2007) or even as services that cater for the specific needs of people who "cannot, or cannot properly, access the audiovisual content in its original form" (Greco, 2016: 23). This article fits squarely into this trend as it reports on a survey-based study set out to find out preferences regarding linguistic accessibility in the cinema among unimpaired senior citizens in Poland. On the whole, 40 people aged 60 or more took part in the study. Results show that senior citizens are more likely to choose voice-over and dubbing over subtitling. This could be because the majority of participants declared that they experience discomfort or difficulties when reading subtitles. As a result, they are willing to use a mobile app that would enable them to listen to audio subtitles in the cinemas.

Senior Citizens as an Underresearched Age Group of Audiovisual Translation Users

“…One might assume, though, that such a solution should be favoured by older adults, as according to a report by the Polish National Broadcasting Council (KRRiT 2011), 20 to 40 percent of television audience is over 60 years old and thus they may be the primary recipients of voice-over. That assumption seems to have been confirmed by a study carried out by Jankowska (2019) in which the participants over the age of 60 stated that if they were www.journal.tertium.edu.pl to choose any AVT mode in the cinema, they would be "likely" or "very likely" to select either voice-over (96.5%) or dubbing (96%). Thus, on the one hand, it is reasonable to assume that voice-over may soon be replaced by subtitling or dubbing (Belczyk 2007); on the other hand, each type of AVT caters for different needs of the viewers, who, especially in light of recent technological advances, should be able to choose the ones they prefer or the ones they are the most familiar with (Díaz-Cintas 1999; Koolstra 2002).…”

“…They are not regular, though, because Polish cinemas are reluctant to pay for a service that only a niche group of viewers would benefit from. That is why, the "AudioMovie -Cinema for All" project was www.journal.tertium.edu.pl launched to create a platform that would provide AD for the blind and partially-sighted independently, with the use of an application (Jankowska 2019).…”

“…Audio subtitling is understood as "aurally rendered and recorded version of subtitles with a film" (Reviers & Remael 2015: 52). The primary recipients of AST are the blind and partiallysighted who, through the combination of AST with AD, are able to access foreign films (Jankowska 2019). Moreover, AST might also be useful for older adults and people with cognitive impairments (Braun & Orero 2010).…”

Researching Displaced Persons During COVID-19

“…Media accessibility studies were born to cater for the access needs of people with disabilities or impairments, through the provision and research of subtitling for the deaf and the hard of hearing and audio description (AD) for the blind and visually impaired (Greco, 2016;Orero, 2004). More recently in the field of media accessibility, attention has been drawn to secondary or extended audiences that would benefit from accessibility services (Greco, 2018;Jankowska, 2019). For example, the elderly may benefit from AD and dubbing (Ellis, 2016;Jankowska, 2019), and learners of foreign languages or those watching screens in a noisy environment from subtitles (Romero-Fresco, 2013).…”

“…More recently in the field of media accessibility, attention has been drawn to secondary or extended audiences that would benefit from accessibility services (Greco, 2018;Jankowska, 2019). For example, the elderly may benefit from AD and dubbing (Ellis, 2016;Jankowska, 2019), and learners of foreign languages or those watching screens in a noisy environment from subtitles (Romero-Fresco, 2013). We posit that displaced persons can also benefit from accessibility services when they arrive in a new country and may not speak or read the host country's language.…”