Practical info
- Location: Building R - Room R010
- Timing: 1 - 4 p.m.
Kate Dangerfield, Zoe Moores and Pablo Romero-Fresco
Now that standard media accessibility (provided as per current guidelines and often considered as an afterthought) has become an ever-pervasive service on TV, VOD platforms and in the cinema and theatre, new and alternative forms of access are emerging. Described as accessible filmmaking (Romero-Fresco 2019) or integrated theatre access (Fryer and Cavalho 2022), the latter see artists engaging with access from inception, in collaboration with access experts and often using access as an artistic opportunity and/or as a tool to fight for a more equitable society. The aim of this workshop is to present these new approaches to media accessibility, explore their wider implications and provide participants with some of the skills needed to implement them.
In the first part of the workshop, participants will be introduced to new ways of thinking about access as a tool to promote inclusion, participation and diversity in the arts and in society. This involves looking at how disabled people are represented in fictional stories, the extent to which they are allowed to take part in artistic productions and especially whether those productions are designed to be accessible. Considering access as a conversation amongst different actors (Dangerfield 2022) and as a promise, rather than a guarantee (Lazard 2019), we will discuss how subtitles, audio description and/or sign language interpreting can be incorporated as part of a film/live event. This requires extending the “first” audience of the film/live event to include deaf, deafened and hard of hearing and blind and visually impaired users, as well as others who prefer to access the film in this way. We will also explore here the different considerations that those hosting and attending the event need to have, from advertising and booking to reaching and navigating the venue and participating in the screening and post-film Q&A. The discussion will centre on the chain of access (Greco et al., 2012) that needs to be created so that every step within this process becomes as accessible as possible and on the potential frameworks that must be in place to facilitate this process (Moores, 2022). This first part of the workshop will prompt a discussion about how these access-related changes might be aligned with broader changes taking place in society: sustainability, climate awareness, questions of marginalisation, the economic crisis, social justice and equity all demand action.
Drawing on a database including over 600 cases of accessible filmmaking and/or creative media access practices, in the second part of the workshop we present the work of artists (often artists with disabilities) who are treating access as an artistic opportunity or as a tool to fight against ableism and other forms of discrimination. Participants will be introduced to three real-life case studies of films and series that are currently being developed following this approach (and where the workshop tutors are acting as access supervisors) and they will have the chance to discuss, propose and produce creative subtitles and audio description for them.
We hope the workshop will be a space for discussion and co-learning, where all who attend, wherever they are on their access journey, will be able to contribute through their own encounters with films and access (or a lack thereof).
- Kate Dangerfield is a researcher, filmmaker and accessibility consultant. Her completed practice as research PhD Within Sound and Image focuses on developing the approach of accessible filmmaking by creating space for the people involved in The Accessible Filmmaking Project (in collaboration with the UK charity Sense, funded by the British Film Institute) who have dual/single sensory impairments and complex communication needs. As an ally, Kate is passionate about challenging the disabling barriers that currently exist within society and her work now focuses on developing the concept of ‘access as a conversation’ in theory and practice.
- Pablo Romero Fresco is senior lecturer at Universidade de Vigo (Spain) and Honorary Professor of Translation and Filmmaking at the University of Roehampton (London, UK). He is the author of the books Subtitling through Speech Recognition: Respeaking (Routledge), Accessible Filmmaking (Routledge) and Transformative Accessibility (Routledge, forthcoming). He is on the editorial board of the Journal of Audiovisual Translation (JAT) and is the leader of the international research group GALMA, for which he is currently coordinating several international projects on media accessibility and accessible filmmaking and where he works as a consultant for institutions and companies such as the European Parliament or Netflix. Pablo is also a filmmaker. His first short documentary, Joining the Dots (2012), was used by Netflix as well as film schools around Europe to raise awareness about audio description. He has just released his first feature-length documentary, Where Memory Ends (2021), which has been screened at the London Spanish Film Festival and the Seminci, in Spain
- Zoe Moores is a researcher and lecturer based at the Universities of Surrey and Roehampton. Her doctoral research explored how respeaking could be introduced into the live event setting in the UK to broaden the access provided for both d/Deaf, deafened and hard of hearing audience members and the wider audience, and what additional skills and training would be required for those involved. She worked closely with the charity Stagetext to co-ordinate the project. Her work on the SMART project in Surrey explores the provision of multilingual access through respeaking. As a member of GALMA, the Galician Observatory for Media Accessibility, Zoe has been involved in a number of accessibility-related projects. She also provides consultancy and training