Science and Art: Transcreation: Introduction to Special Section: Transcreation and Accessibility

Abstract

The nature of translation has provided the focus of longstanding debates. While some scholars pursue translation as an aesthetic, creativity-driven activity, others explore the practical functions or social utility of translation in fulfilling unmet needs. The term transcreation is used here to denote a purposeful integration of both approaches to translation to serve the needs of diverse people for information in an accessible, equitable, inclusive, creative and engaging way. The term transcreation highlights the nature of translation as an inventive, resourceful, human-centered activity that seeks to eliminate barriers to the communication and understanding between languages, cultures, communities, and individuals of all capabilities.The acquisition of information requires a human-centered design of messages and modality, or the signified and signifier. According to semiology, the link of sign to reality is arbitrary, and the representation of the signified is equally arbitrary. The combination of different signified and signifier pairs contributes to the complexity of language systems. This also encapsulates the uncertainty, variability and creativity in translation, which is intended to establish meaningful links between language and cultural systems. Instead of providing uniform answers, in the process of mediating, negotiating between languages, cultures and modalities, translation affords many possibilities for being open to purposeful interventions to achieve intended outcomes. Debates in translation often focus on the inherent imbalance, asymmetry and reconcilability between linguistic and sociocultural systems. The diversity and variability of readers’ needs tends to remain as hidden as the translators themselves. There is an increasing need to turn the focus to readers as the end users of translated materials and prioritize information accessibility above other translation concerns. Words, texts, discourses have been studied extensively—prominently in translation studies. However, their integration and interaction with visual signs and symbols, tactual and auditory stimulus, or other sensory cues can significantly improve the accessibility of information to diverse audiences. Transcreation is a theoretical framework that supports and legitimates creative interventions at different levels, including lexical, structural, semantic and modal, that recognize, accommodate and promote the diversity and variability in the needs for information from the audiences.Ilan Manouach’s article explores the viability and acceptability of using creative haptic equivalents of alphabet-based linguistic systems to develop touch readers of comics for people with visual impairments. The accessibility installation Shapereader has the capacity to translate lexical meanings to tactile symbols that are accessible by visually impaired readers from different age groups and language, cultural and educational backgrounds. The success of this creative, transmodal approach to accessible comics translation raised awareness of diversification in readerships and illustrated the highly creative, resourceful nature of accessible translation. The article by Dario Rodighiero explores the design of visual networks of conference proceedings that embodies the principles of connectedness, inclusivity and equality among conference contributors. These principles were represented by continuous, spherical surfaces of visualized networks based on the computational modeling of lexical similarity of proceeding texts. The innovation of this approach consists in expanding the dual dimensionality of the visual representation of textual, numerical information to support the interpretation of complex quantitative information in a visually and cognitively accessible manner. The author also experimented with and compared spherical networks after applying different digital cartographic projection techniques. This approach offers insights into the impact of visual techniques on the representation and understanding of networks of individual information, which can aid in the discovery and exploration of higher-level knowledge from primary quantitative textual data. Using translation techniques to increase the accessibility of standard cinematographic practices for audiences with special needs, Pablo Romero-Fresco’s article describes the emerging field of accessible film production. Rather than exclude these audiences from the production process, the innovative approach proposed involves codesigning and coevaluating accessible films with people with visual or auditory impairments. In order to illustrate the codesign process, the author provides examples of sign language interpreters who effectively integrated visual aids for people with hearing impairments into the overall artistic performance for the general audience. As a result, accessibility becomes an inseparable part of standard film production rather than an unnatural addition.Transcreation is an ongoing, iterative project, incorporating the inspirations, visions and innovative efforts of artists, translators, disability researchers and designers that showcase the viability and productivity of human-centered translation-related activities construed in a broad, interdisciplinary sense. The case studies illustrate that innovative transcreation can help us to explore new ways of communicating that are less dependent on physical capabilities and less demanding of cognitive skills to process complex information in large quantities. Transcreation can effectively leverage instruments, techniques and technologies to increase the accessibility of information. From craftsmanship such as tactile ideograms to modern techniques such as data visualization and digital cartographic projection, transcreation represents a sustainable, equitable, inclusive way to engage with and mediate between different languages, cultures and modalities with the diversity and equality in humanity at the heart of information communications.