What matters deafness of the ears, when the mind hears?

Updates on subtitling for news on TV in Singapore. It’s now officially confirmed, and will start from 2 Oct. Yay!!! 

MediaCorp rolls out real-time subtitling for news bulletins

By Julia Ng, Channel NewsAsia | Posted: 27 September 2006 1717 hrs 

SINGAPORE : MediaCorp will be introducing real-time subtitling, starting with Channel 5’s English news bulletins from next Monday. This will be followed by Chinese news at 10pm on Channel 8, and Suria’s 8pm Malay news bulletins in December. The service is supported by the Media Development Authority of Singapore (MDA). MediaCorp and MDA are still exploring ‘live’ subtitling for Tamil news on Vasantham Central.

Wong Siew Leng, who is deaf, is curious about things happening around her. To keep informed, she watches the news bulletins on MediaCorp’s Channels 5 and U. It is a bit of guesswork and she often needs someone to interpret the news to her through sign language. But from October 2, following the latest news on television will be a totally new experience for people like her.

MediaCorp is rolling out real-time subtitling, starting with the Channel 5 9.30pm news bulletin - which is also simulcast on TV Mobile. Speaking through an interpreter, Siew Leng said, "With captions, I can understand the news, the sentences…it’s better. Sometimes I don’t understand. I watch the TV Mobile on the bus. When I’m on the bus, I watch the captions on the TV Mobile…it’s much better. With the improvement of captioning, more and more people will understand better."

Mrs Jenny Ho, Executive Director, The Singapore Association for the Deaf, said, "With subtitling, the deaf can get simultaneous information from the news themselves and they don’t have to rely on interpretation of their hearing peers. They could be more independent and contributing members of the society." The Singapore Association for the Deaf has always been advocating TV news subtitling. But it won’t just benefit its 5,400 registered members. The Association says old age-related deafness will increase as the Singapore population ages rapidly.

Denise Phua, President, Autism Resource Centre, said, "This initiative will benefit not only the hearing impaired but also the elderly and the autism community, most of whom are visual learners. And even the rest of us. Because research has shown that more than 60 percent of us are visual learners."

Dr Vivian Balakrishnan, Minister for Community Development, Youth and Sports, and Second Minister for Information, Communications and the Arts, said, "For a long long while, people with hearing disabilities have been appealing that they want (subtitling), in order to feel more integrated with society, they also need to be able to get information in a timely (manner). "There were always two possibilities - one was whether to do sign language or subtitling. I think the choice to do subtitling is very apt. (The) more important point…is that we’re prepared to go the extra mile to make Singapore a more inclusive and integrated place for people with disabilities. So all these are positive steps in the right direction."

Rosmawati Sulaiman, Executive Editor, English News Output, MediaCorp News, said, "It’s been an exciting time for the editorial and production teams, fitting a new element into the show. But it is also very challenging as it entails us taking a different approach to telling a story. "It’s more than just putting the script on air while the story is being told. It’s about making sure what is displayed makes sense to the viewer. Interviews, for example, need to be transcribed, but at the same time, they have to be cleaned up for grammar to make sure they can be understood by the viewer. And not everything can be transcribed. We often cut to an event or speak to a reporter on location ‘live’. These cannot be subtitled. Then there are the late, breaking stories containing off-the cuff speeches. These too will not be subtitled."

MediaCorp says it welcomes public feedback on the service to help improve the system. - CNA/ms