Subtitling my Placement

Ever since I got the call from VSO offering me a Flip camera I'd been wondering how to make clips accessible for Deaf people. Not just British Deaf people but for Deaf people in India and any that may take an interest in VSO and volunteering.

Obviously this is very important, there are at least two Deaf people in the UK who have volunteered with VSO and one person I know of who works full-time in International Development. There will be many more that have done worldwide. VSO has six main strands of work, one of which is Disability. The others being Secure Livelihoods, HIV & AIDS, Health, Education and Participation & Governance. These are all cross-cutting. Within the programme area of Disability is development work with Deaf people and quite often this work is about organisational development. Introducing new ideas, setting up projects, consolidating work done, strengthening the future work of an organisation have all been done by Deaf people for Deaf people.

The work I'll be doing for a Deaf organisation, The Deaf Way Foundation in India, very much feels like a blip in the ocean. It's been hard to find out the things I really want to know. Some are facts such as how many Deaf people or Interpreters are there in India. But what I really want to know is what is the reality of the levels of access that Deaf people have in their lives? To employment, to socialise with each other, to go to the cinema, to health services or to any information they wish to access. With a Deaf man petitioning the courts last month and finally being able to apply for a driving licence, the situation there looks far from rosy.

The organisation I'll be working for seems progressive, positive and does some fantastic work. I've seen their work on the internet and had contact with my line manager, the Chief Exec. They've been doing YouTube longer than some organisations here. And even though my work will be a blip, it will be a blip all the same. The aims of increasing the numbers of Interpreters and their training, developing the Association of Sign Language Interpreters and assisting to develop the Interpreting profession as a whole are small things that will increase the potential for access to Deaf people in India. Even with Interpreters, they will still come across the types of barriers that society puts up which are sadly still evident in this country. But it's a step in the right direction and I'm really looking forward to meeting my new colleagues. I'm hoping some of them will want to do a few clips. Then I'll have to get good not only at Indian Sign Language but fluent quickly enough to start subtitling them into English.

With this accessibility in mind, I spent most of yesterday finding out how to subtitle a clip. I've thought about the clips quite a bit. Do I sign and subtitle them in English? Do I speak and subtitle them whilst trying to provide a signed version? Should I look into Hindi subtitles? Do I just film, leave it dependent on the situation and make the access as suitable as I possibly can afterwards? Moreover, will anyone actually watch them?

My first clip is up (you get the subtitles up by clicking the options box in the bottom right hand corner of the clip box and clicking the box with subtitle lines on it). It's been fun trying to work out how to do this even if it is a little time consuming typing out the words and checking the timings and readability (and I'm already sick of the sound of my own voice - it'll be much better when I can start to film other people and places). But I know the clips are worth subtitling even if it is my lovely Ma and Pa and Aunty Jean that might want to watch them!