How easy are audio descriptions? Exploring the viability of hybrid access services across English, Spanish and Catalan
Easy-to-understand (E2U) language has typicallybeen used for written content, but there has been a recent interest in applying this concept to audiovisual content and access services on streamingplatforms. In this regard, the EASIT project addressed whether the hybridisation of E2Ulanguage with audi...
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| Main Authors: | , |
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
Western Sydney University
2025-07-01
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| Series: | Translation and Interpreting : the International Journal of Translation and Interpreting Research |
| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | https://www.trans-int.org/index.php/transint/article/view/2103 |
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| Summary: | Easy-to-understand (E2U) language has typicallybeen used for written content, but there has been a recent interest in applying this concept to audiovisual content and access services on streamingplatforms. In this regard, the EASIT project addressed whether the hybridisation of E2Ulanguage with audio description (AD) could produce a new access service.This new form of easy ADmay be key soon for streaming platforms to create an environment where individuals with diverse profiles can engage with media in ways that are accessible and enjoyable.While professionals from ADand E2Ulanguage hold diverging views on the topic, one central aspect remainsto be investigated: how easy are current audio descriptions? This paper presents a contrastive analysis of a corpus of film ADin English, Catalan and Spanish, to assess theextent to which AD scriptsshare the principles of E2Ulanguage as described in international standards. Materials validated as easy in the same languages are used forcomparison. This descriptive study sheds light on current practices with a cross-linguistic perspective and allows us to identify commonalities and divergences between E2U languageand AD. The paper reports on features connected to sentence complexity, namely sentence length, part-of-speech distribution, verbs per sentence, and frequency of verbal periphrases. It also offers a lexical analysis considering corpus aboutness, lexical density, vocabulary richness, and information load, as well as relevant readability indexes. Additionally, it contributes to the development of the so-called concept of easy audios, as proposed by theongoingWELproject. |
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| ISSN: | 1836-9324 |