Linguistic Accessibility for Small Language Cinema

Abstract

Audiovisual accessibility is considered as a basic right. In a world where audiovisual material is more and more present, several measures have been taken in order to facilitate the access to it by people living with sensory disabilities; some of them at the regulatory level and others at the technological level. As a part of a wider project, this article addresses the issue of the accessibility to the audiovisual material from another perspective: that of the small languages. From this point of view, language is a barrier which prevents potential viewers from watching cinema in small languages. This is a major concern especially in contexts where dubbing is the norm for language-transfer. This paper presents and discusses some results of the analysis of the regulation and practices of audiovisual accessibility, as well as the outcome of some experiments conducted by applying the technology for the audiovisual accessibility in the field of the linguistic accessibility. The case of cinema in Basque language is considered for this purpose.