ÈLIA SALA
LECTURE: CREACTIVITY TO MAKE YOUR CONTENTS (REALLY) ACCESSIBLE
BIO
Èlia Sala Robert holds a PhD in Translation and Language Sciences with a thesis on subtitling for deaf children in which she designed the creactive subtitles: an innovative subtitling proposal to convey both paralinguistic features and sound effects visually. She works at Universitat Pompeu Fabra and Universitat Oberta de Catalunya where she teaches translation and accessibility. She is also in charge of the module that introduces students to audiodescription and subtitling for the d/Deaf and the hard-of-hearing module at the MA in Literary and Audiovisual Translation of the Barcelona School of Management. With more than ten years’ experience as a linguist, translator and subtitler, she is the CEO and founder of the former Creactive Translation Studio ─now under her personal brand─, where she manages transcreation and accessibility projects.
ABSTRACT
Deafness is usually classified according to the location of the alteration, to the degree of hearing loss; or to the moment when the hearing loss appears, before or after the language acquisition process has been completed.
Early hearing loss has an impact on the cognitive, communicative, linguistic and social development of children and influences not only their language choice, but also the way they communicate, understand and perceive the world we live in. Thus, the mission of accessible subtitling is to transmit what is perceived by means of the hearing sense to make the audiovisual message complete for everyone. That is why the visual conveyance of all nuances of sound in accessible subtitling is essential.
Creactivity provides emotional subtitles targeted at younger (deaf) audiences. Creactive subtitles originated from the urge to provide an effective subtitling code according to the real capabilities of deaf children, which differ from those of deaf adults, due to their age, maturity, language appreciation and reading skills. They are visual tailor-made subtitles designed ad hoc to be up to the uniqueness of each audiovisual product and its audiences’ abilities.