Training professional respeakers to subtitle live events in the UK

: A participative model for access and inclusion

Abstract

Over the last fifteen years, respeaking, or the production of live subtitles by a person using speech recognition, has become a common technique on television. Whilst in many countries its use has expanded into other areas, this trend has not been seen anywhere near as widely in the UK, where respeaking is often considered a poor relation to other access modalities. This study explores how respeaking can be introduced at unscripted/partially scripted events to complement the access currently provided. The action research methodology used in this research facilitated close collaboration with users and providers, who shared their expertise while outlining their key access needs. A bespoke training programme was designed to enable professional television respeakers to transfer their skills to this new setting and two rounds of research events allowed their respeaking to be evaluated and feedback to be collected from all involved. The data presented in this thesis is structured around these stages in the research design. The respeaking for the most part met, and frequently exceeded, the benchmark of 98% accuracy set for live television subtitling; latency was similar to that seen on television. This technical analysis illustrates that respeaking can be considered as a viable way of providing access for d/Deaf, deafened and hard of hearing audience members in this new sector, access that a wider audience was also seen to benefit from. More importantly, support for this new service was voiced among the providers and audience members involved. The theoretical underpinning of this study, embedded within intersectionality, social and epistemic justice and the social model of accessibility, demanded a deeper consideration of how the linguistic and sensory access respeaking brings must be integrated within the multiple layers of access that any event needs, and frames this thesis. Precisely what access entails will be shaped by the circumstances of each event and those who attend, but individual and collective awareness of and participation in access is vital, especially if broader equity and access are to be truly experienced in society.

Date of Award	20 Dec 2022
Original language	English
Awarding Institution	University of Roehampton
Sponsors	technē AHRC
Supervisor	Deborah Jermyn (Director of Studies), Lucile Desblache (Co-Supervisor) & Pablo Romero Fresco (Co-Supervisor)