Rendering Tone and Mood in Creactive Subtitles for Deaf and Hard-of-hearing

Abstract

This article introduces the concept of creactivity – the process of making creative solutions to provide emotional accessibility, especially in subtitling for the d/Deaf and the hard-of-hearing. It is based on the findings of the PhD thesis Creactive Subtitles: Subtitling for All, defended by the author in 2016. To understand the need for a new way of providing accessibility, a review of digital communication is presented. It illustrates the pivotal role of digitization at present, after the pandemic has increased digital inequality for those who lack digital skills or access due to their sociodemographic background or sensory impairment. The impact of deafness is discussed, particularly, how early hearing loss influences the cognitive, communicative, linguistic, and social development of children and affects not only their language choice, but also the way they communicate, understand, and perceive the world we live in. Thus, to transmit what is perceived by means of hearing to make the audiovisual message complete for everyone, Sala [2016] designed the creactive subtitles. Targeted at younger (deaf) audiences, they are visual tailor-made subtitles designed ad hoc to be adapted to the unique features of each audiovisual product and its audiences’ abilities. Now that creactive subtitles are a reality, creactivity becomes the new goal: to spread the attitude to create new solutions in favor of accessibility.