Dr Ryan Bramley sat down with Sophie Muller, Head of Voicebox - an End-to-End Media Accessibility & Localisation company - for a new University of Sheffield film, ‘How can we improve subtitles’. Ahead of our film launch later this year, we have published Sophie’s brilliant, longer-form interview as a blog post.
As well as exploring the current state of subtitling provision in the film and TV industry, Sophie responds to the ‘Six Recommendations for Change’ that emerged from Ryan’s research project, ‘How do Deaf British Sign Language users experience suspense in film?’ - co-led by iHuman’s Dr Kirsty Liddiard, and Beth Evans (from SUBTXT Creative).
Imagine you’re d/Deaf or hard of hearing and watching Jaws. Without SDH subtitles (Subtitles for d/Deaf and Hard of Hearing people), you wouldn’t feel the suspense and tension from the iconic soundtrack and sound effects, and you wouldn’t get to experience some of the most renowned cinematic moments ever.
Even though it is not spoken dialogue, if you remove the full audio landscape — including sound effects, tone, music and audio cues that matter — you remove a sense of meaning and suspense. It’s all gone.
Not only do you do a disservice to the viewer, but the producer and directors also suffer. They’ve spent an awful lot of time using their expertise to create dramatic moments and you’re doing them out of a good job.
I know how important SDH subtitles are from working on media accessibility services with my amazing team at VoiceBox for nearly eight years.
I have two jobs. One, to drive revenue and provide a service for media clients. Two, to listen to the industry, to think tanks, to deaf, blind and neurodiverse audiences to get a better understanding of what works for them. Then, I need to transfer that over to the media clients.
And from seeing the impact of SDH subtitles, they 100% should be the absolute standard.
It doesn’t harm me as someone who is fully hearing to read it. But for a deaf person not to have that available, it can completely change the context of what they’re watching. That’s not fair for the deaf person and not fair for those who made the film.
How SDH subtitles support revenue
In my time in the industry, I quite quickly noticed that for many businesses, it’s not audience experience that is always a priority, or looking after directors. It’s what goes in their pocket at the end of the day.
I can understand as to why revenue is so important; bills have to be paid. I think it’s handy for businesses to know there is a potential financial gain.
Some businesses may sadly see disabled audiences as a tick box, rather than an opportunity.
But what sometimes businesses and creative agencies don’t realise is that when a blind consumer or someone with sight loss doesn’t get the full experience, then they’re less likely to enjoy it and therefore recommend it.
That means you won’t capitalise on the Purple Pound (the spending power of disabled households), which sits at £274 billion per year.
And trust me, these audiences are more loyal than others. When they find a business or something they like, they tend to stick with it.
On the flip side, the Acquia survey report in 2024 outlined that if a disabled person has accessibility issues while using digital platforms or services offered by brands, they will talk about it too.
Almost one-third (31%) would discuss the issue with family and friends. One in five respondents (20%) would share their experience on social media, so brand reputation could be impacted by word of mouth and social platforms. Cancel culture is very real.
So, in my role as Head of VoiceBox, where we are a leading supplier of media accessibility services, including subtitles, I have really been encouraging clients to automatically opt for SDH subtitles.
Because it’s only fair to have them. Not only is it the inclusive thing to do, but there are also financial gains, as well as reputational gains for brands.
Go all in
I don't see the point in providing captions if you're not going to provide what I would say are full captions that give all the context.
For example, with sarcasm and humour, SDH subtitles are vital.
If you are born Deaf and therefore never heard a sarcastic tone, you may not understand the phrase “I’m going to kill him” vs “I’m going to kill him (said jokingly). They are more likely to take it literally, because it’s exactly what they read. At least, this might be the case in something like a drama.
Yes, hearing people don't always need them. But they do sometimes choose to use them, for example, not far off two-thirds (61%) of 18 to 24-year-olds will watch TV with subtitles on screen, according to a YouGov poll.
However, we have to assume that subtitles originally were not for hearing people. So, I do think that the job needs to be more correct. It just needs to be a standard procedure.
Whether programs come with SDH subtitles depends entirely on the broadcaster. The broadcasters generally will have a spec referencing screen size, caption colour, open vs closed captions, how many characters per line, there is a whole array of things.
I know when something's going to Netflix because I know what the spec is for that. Now, Netflix are really good for SDH. They will reject it if it doesn't have SDH, they have a very stringent acceptance rate to ensure accessibility is the best it can be, and they have SDH in foreign languages. All of this is fantastic, and Netflix leads the way here.
However, our terrestrial TV is not quite as good and that's not for a lack of want because I know a couple of the guys who do work at Channel 4, Red Bee and ITV — they're really great.
But in the UK, there are no official standards for terrestrial. I would love to see UK broadcasters have specific guidelines on subtitles colour, text or positioning. In France they do, so it is realistic that the UK could as well.
That would help bring the standards up, meaning a better and more consistent output for d/Deaf and hard of hearing viewers.
SDH subtitles support a wider audience
It’s very easy to forget that there may be times when fully hearing people rely on them too. Whether that be when feeding in the night or when your partner has fallen asleep on your lap, you may need to watch it on mute or low volume.
Those off-screen sounds are really important.
Now, as someone who reads an awful lot and works with captions for a living, sometimes I will read the sound or action before it’s happened or been spoken on screen. My eyes are automatically drawn to it.
Does it ruin a program for me? Even when I guess the conundrum on Countdown and the answer comes up before I’ve even written down my letters (that’s how sad my life is)?
Absolutely not. Deaf people don’t have any other option. So, whilst it may be a mild inconvenience for me, it’s a lifeline for their entertainment. They rely on it.
Ultimately, captions do in fact hugely help for the deaf and hard of hearing audience. And they can also support neurodiverse audiences, dyslexic audiences, non-native English speakers, and people who just like to watch with subtitles, like me.
I was recently in conversation with the superb Dr Ryan Bramley of the University of Sheffield. We talked about subtitles and deaf audiences. He explained that at least 50% of people regularly use subtitles for a film.
For the University’s short film about subtitles in film and TV, we discussed ‘Six Recommendations for Change’, emerging from their research with deaf people.
One of the recommendations outlines that captions should be designed collaboratively by captioners, film makers, broadcasters, production companies and deaf consultants.
I’m of the opinion that while it’s not necessary to design them together per each individual project, it is necessary to have consultation with anybody who uses captions. And as I've said before, I do think that the deaf community must come first with that.
I think, as for filmmakers, leave it to the experts because they’re different jobs. Understanding accessibility is not in their job title any more than understanding how to turn a camera on is in mine.
Where there are big decisions on the rules of captioning, absolutely consult deaf people. I think anyone with the right training can caption, so the actual process of captioning should be left to them.
For my other takes on the recommendations, keep an eye out for the short film coming soon, where I will feature alongside stakeholders in the film and TV industry.
