Book review: Accessibilitat i traducció audiovisual

Abstract

Accessibilitat i traducció audiovisual (Audiovisual Accessibility and Translation, in English) by Anna Matamala (2019) is a book written in Catalan which delves into the possibilities of making the audiovisual experience complete for all consumers by modifying content. With the rise of audiovisual and virtual content in the communication media, many people with disabilities such as hearing loss or visual impairment are left behind in the most run-of-the-mill experiences, especially those containing aural and visual elements as they cannot fully participate in the imaginary construct created by the voices, images and sounds.  This book not only intends to show how to accommodate films, series and TV programmes to the needs of the audience, namely the hard of hearing and the blind or partially blind, but it also provides a general overview of the job of the translator, including translation techniques, along with an analysis of media accessibility. Furthermore, the book proposes activities for the reader to reach their own conclusions and experience first-hand. In doing so, Matamala captures the reader’s attention and attains reader’s interaction and participation, making traditionally passive reading an active learning experience.

Although this book covers the subject of translation, it is not only addressed to professional translators inasmuch as they are already acquainted with the information regarding translation techniques and professional aspects of the job. The audiences that, to my mind, would benefit from this book the most are translation teachers and students, due to its manual layout. Matamala has written and designed this book in a way that learning occurs gradually; that is to say, definitions and more general aspects of translation are presented and illustrated at the beginning of the book to culminate in the explanation of those techniques that cater for the consumers’ needs in order to accommodate content. The aim of content accommodation is to maximise the audiovisual experience in people with disabilities, namely subtitles, visual description or audio subtitling among others, in order to approach audiovisual content to them.