Audio subtitling and subtitling: a comparison of their emotional effect on blind / partially sighted and sighted users

Abstract

Audio subtitling (AST) is a media accessibility service that allows for people who are blind, partially sighted or with any reading disability to access written subtitles in their aural form. Despite the existing literature on other media accessibility services such as audio description, the way written subtitles compare to orally delivered subtitles has not been researched. In this study, a group of 42 blind and partially sighted participants and a group of 42 sighted participants watched the same three video clips. Two of them pictured two emotions (sadness and fear) and the third was emotionally neutral. The clips were prepared with subtitles or audio subtitles, according to the target participants. The emotional effect of the clips was measured in two ways: with self-reports, by completing after each clip the SAM questionnaire (Bradley & Lang, 1994); and with psychophysiological measures: electrodermal activity (EDA) and heart rate (HR), that were recorded while participants watched each clip. The analyses of the data obtained in both experiments indicate that self-report measures revealed similar experiences for both blind and sighted participants, differentiating between valence (negative for fear and sadness, but not for neutral) and arousal (deemed higher for fear than for sadness and neutral). Data from EDA and HR measures are less conclusive.