From translators to accessibility managers: How did we get there and how do we train them?

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Published: Jan 30, 2020
DOI: https://doi.org/10.6035/MonTI.2019.11.5
Keywords:
translation studies, accessibility, audio description, audiovisual translation

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Aline Remael
University of Antwerp
Pilar Orero
Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona
https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0269-1936
Sharon Black
Queen’s University Belfast
Anna Jankowska
Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona

Abstract

Translation continues to reinvent itself. Different human actors and non-human actants drive this change, generating new forms of translation and diverse professional profiles. Audiovisual Translation (AVT) and Audiovisual Translation Studies (AVTS) have always been at the centre of these developments: AVT has been technology and industry-driven from the start and AVTS has incorporated technological and societal change as well as the forces that propel it from its inception. Meanwhile, AVT has incorporated media accessibility and has moved beyond the domain of audiovisual media in the strict sense into the provision of access to live cultural events. The present article offers some conceptual tools for understanding these developments as well as the actant-driven processes that underlie them. It traces recent developments in AVT and explains how they have given rise to the aforementioned new professional practices and profiles. It ends on an extensive case study, centring on the ACT European Erasmus+ project, which has identified and defined the emerging profile of the accessibility manager, and developed a tailor-made MOOC training course for it.

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How to Cite
Remael, A., Orero, P., Black, S., & Jankowska, A. (2020). From translators to accessibility managers: How did we get there and how do we train them?. MonTI. Monographs in Translation and Interpreting, (11), 131–154. https://doi.org/10.6035/MonTI.2019.11.5
Issue
No. 11 (2019): Porque algo tiene que cambiar. La formación de traductores e intérpretes: presente & futuro
Section
Articles

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Author Biographies

Aline Remael, University of Antwerp

Aline Remael is Professor of Translation Theory, Interpreting and Audiovisual Translation at the Department of Applied Linguistics/Translators and Interpreters. Her main research interests are audio-visual translation (intra- and interlingual subtitling), media accessibility (audio-description and audio-subtitling) and new hybrid forms of interpreting that have affinities with AVT. She was a partner in the European ADLAB project, is currently supervising a Flemish funded project on accessible theatre, and is a partner in three Erasmus+ projects on accessibility and training: ACT, ADLAB PRO and ILSA. She supervises PhDs in AVT, Media Access and Remote Interpreting. She has organized numerous international conferences, including the new symposium series entitled “Unlimited! Live accessible events”, launched at UAntwerp in April 2016. She is a member of the editorial board of various international Translation Studies journals, a member of the International TransMedia Research Group, and board member of ENPSIT (European Network for Public Service Interpreting and Translation).

Pilar Orero, Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona

Pilar Orero teaches at Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona (Spain). Leader of numerous research projects funded by the Spanish and Catalan Gov. She led TransMedia Catalonia http://grupsderecerca.uab.cat/transmediacatalonia, the European Master in Audiovisual Translation and various EU projects (e.g. HBB4ALL, 2013-2016). She led Audio Description in the working group at  UN agency ITU 2011-2013 on Media accessibility and is now participating in the IRG-AVA – Intersector Rapporteur Group Audiovisual Media Accessibility. She worked on the Audio Description standard ISO/IEC JTC 1/SC 35 N. She has held the INDRA Accessible Technologies Chair since 2012 http://www. tecnologiasaccesibles.com/en/university_collaboration.htm and leads the EU project KA2 ACT (2015-2018).

Sharon Black, Queen’s University Belfast

Sharon Black is Research Fellow and Project Coordinator for the Accessible Culture and Training (ACT) project at Queen’s University Belfast. She also teaches Simultaneous Interpreting, Consecutive Interpreting, Commercial Interpreting and Public Service Interpreting on the MA in Interpreting programme and Spanish translation workshops for students of the MA in Translation. Her teaching is informed by her ongoing professional practice as a conference and public service interpreter and translator (specialising in Spanish and French). Her principal research interests lie in the fields of audiovisual translation, particularly the reception of translated audiovisual content, cognitive translation studies, and cultural and media accessibility. From September 2018 she will be a Lecturer in Interpreting with Spanish at the University of East Anglia

Anna Jankowska, Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona

Anna Jankowska is Assistant Lecturer in the Chair for Translation Studies and Intercultural Communication at the Jagiellonian University in Krakow (Poland) and visiting scholar at the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona within the Mobility Plus program of the Polish Ministry of Science and Higher Education (2016-2019). Her main research interests are accessible technologies, translation of audio description scripts, cognitive aspects of audio description process and multiculturalism in audio description. She was the leader of the project AudioMovie – Cinema for All financed by the Polish National Centre For Research and Development and participated in numerous projects funded by Polish government and the EU (e.g. OpenArt, PICT). Currently she is leading the ADDit! project and is involved in the ADLAB PRO and NEA projects. She is also the founder and president of the Seventh Sense Foundation which provides audio description and subtitles for the deaf and hard of hearing for live events and cinemas.

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