Poor captions stop Deaf viewers experiencing suspense in film and TV, new research finds

Deaf people watching TV and films are being left feeling excluded as a result of poor captions, a new study has found, with viewers prevented from experiencing immersive phenomena such as suspense.

The project, from the University of Sheffield and design studio Paper, had Deaf participants watch captioned versions of films such as Jaws, A Quiet Place and The Hunchback of Notre Dame before asking them to share their experiences engaging with the content.

Dr Ryan Bramley, from the University of Sheffield’s School of Education, said: “Our research found that certain descriptions of sound lacked key information that was central to the plot.

“For example, in Jaws, the participants were aware that there was ‘famous’ music in the clip, but they told us that the captions did not convey that the music represented the shark getting closer. This impacted how much suspense they felt during the film.

“Because the Deaf community see sound in captions, delayed missing, poor quality captioning, or too complex captioning can result in Deaf cinema-goers feeling excluded and not treated equally to hearing people when watching films.”

Another example included in the report is a scene from the post-apocalyptic horror film A Quiet Place, and a scene in which a Deaf character’s experience of sound through a cochlear implant is denoted with the caption “[silence]”, with research participants understanding the individual was Deaf, but not what the silence represented.

“Many participants thought that this caption was describing the environment,” it states, with one of the report’s six recommendations concerning opening up test screenings to Deaf audiences to ensure captions are working effectively.

Meanwhile, Beth Evans, project leader and founder of the creative subtitling company SUBTXT Creative, highlighted the “immersive and creative” captioning work on the hit Netflix series Stranger Things as a good example of captioning, noting captioners worked with Hollywood orchestrators to create appropriate equipments of sound featured in the show.

She said: “It shows how good captioning quality could be if it was given the same level of investment, collaboration and creative freedom as any other part of the film during production, instead of being an afterthought.”

Other recommendations for the media industry around improving accessibility include “close collaboration” in the co-designing of captions; using captions creatively to produce “something artistic and visual”; and the personalisation of captions.

The report also recommends improving accessibility in cinemas through “more frequent and more convenient screening times for captioned viewings”, after participants reported a lack of accessible showings which meant they had to download movies online or watch them after they have left cinemas.

The UK Cinema Association (UKCA) launched a “technology challenge fund” in 2018 to invest in new devices to increase subtitle access, before confirming to Liam O’Dell in February that the project was being taken forward by tech company Built for Good (BfG), which piloted its new subtitles glasses for cinemas from the start of the year.

The UKCA said it remains in an ongoing dialogue with BfG and its members around the fund.

In findings obtained by this website in March, the majority of participants in the first trial in Derby confirmed they preferred ‘open captioned’ screenings with ‘burned-in’ subtitles over the wearable device.

While the new Paper and Sheffield project was focussed more on Deaf people’s experiences of suspense when consuming media, researchers also noted that participants mentioned a lack of access to BSL during the UK Government’s coronavirus briefings – an issue highlighted in Lynn Stewart-Taylor’s ‘Where Is The Interpreter’ campaign – and struggling to watch shows like The Great British Bake Off, which was affected by a subtitles outage in September 2021.

Dr Bramley added: “For Deaf cinema-goers to experience storytelling techniques such as suspense as filmmakers intend, the captions have to effectively replicate the effects of the sounds in the film, and currently, they often aren’t.”

The research is the latest guidance to be issued around captioning and accessibility provision for visual content, after the broadcasting regulator Ofcom published a new audience survey and revised best practice guidelines on providing TV and on-demand access services.

The guidelines state: “The needs and preferences of disabled individuals are likely to differ, depending in part on the degree and nature of their disability. Therefore, where practical, we encourage providers to provide customisation options (for example in relation to the size and presentation of subtitles or signers) and choice for viewers (for example, by providing optional introductions to audio described programmes).”

---

Update – 10/05/24: In a statement to Liam O’Dell on Friday, UKCA’s chief executive Phil Clapp said: “We remain in discussion with our members on what more might be done to increase the number and range of subtitled screenings.”

The UKCA also clarified their ongoing conversations with BfG around the latter’s subtitles glasses, and the above article has been amended to reflect this.