See below a request from a second-year Master’s student at the University of Burgundy, Dijon who is studying audiovisual translation. “The research is independent and in conjunction with the master’s thesis. The results wouldn’t be published in the public domain, they’ll be presented as a part of the thesis. This could of course lead to further research down the line but for now, all results would stay internal to my university department.”
“I’m Harry, a second-year Master’s student at the University of Burgundy, Dijon studying audiovisual translation. I’m currently writing my Master’s thesis on captioning / SDH subtitling and have prepared a study that I’d like to present, along with my other research, to the university.
My study focuses particularly on the correlation between reading speeds and comprehension of videos containing technical language. I have prepared three videos, all of which contain scientific or technical language. Each video has been subtitled twice, once following the BBC’s captioning guidelines and the other following Netflix’s.
This is a preliminary study into the effects of what an increased reading speed would have on the overall comprehension of the video. Other smaller areas of focus are the use of colours to identify speakers and slight punctuation differences.
For example, if YouTube were to adopt official captioning guidelines, would Deaf and hard of hearing viewers prefer BBC SDH subtitles, Netflix SDH subtitles, or a mix of both? And should we allow more time, or a lower CPS, when dealing with very technical language?
I’d be very appreciative if you could help me pass these videos and questionnaire on to anybody who fits into the category of Deaf and hard of hearing. The questionnaire is completely anonymous, the only data gathered is the participant’s answers to the questions. Participants should be aged 11 and over.
Each participant would only have to choose one of the six videos to watch (around three minutes long) and answer a 15 minute questionnaire afterwards.
Please let me know if any of the links don’t work and please get in touch if you have any queries. I’m happy to answer any questions you might have.”
Link to questionnaire: for participants aged 11 and over.
