Did You See?

Subtitling on TV and chit chat

People tend to meet and greet with “how are you’s”. If there’s time for a chat the next question very often takes the form of “did you see ‘’Get out of being an X factoring celebrity chef house decorating eastender on ice from coronation farm?” “No! Well what happened is …………………………….” – which, I’d guess, is social interaction.

We talk with friends about things we enjoy and understand mutually more than we do individually – it’s easier. Nobody really sits behind a desk at 6.30am, turns to a colleague and asks “what’s your opinion on the latest Euro Zone crisis?” A certain Mr Osborne excepted. As interactive creatures we talk about all sorts of stuff, but TV can more often than not be relied upon as the common denominator.

Well, nothing new there. The improvements to subtitling over a short time, two or three years I’d suggest, have enabled folks with impaired hearing to join in those conversations – as long, of course, as they are on ‘good communicating’ terms with whomever they are speaking with.

Perhaps we have to thank digital broadcasting for the improvements subtitling, in which case I’m delighted we had to change the TV, either way the choices of deaf-viewable programmes has increased – seemingly in direct proportion to the decline of what’s broadcast.

Did you know that some of the best writing on TV, Bugs Bunny, Daffy Duck and Co, isn’t subbed? Shameful.

Back to positive things. After many years of being unable to join in TV based conversations, Sue had a great time talking with her friends about the last ever episode of ‘Being Human’ (or B&Q Man as we know it since she miss-lipread a friend’s viewing recommendation).

They had a great time talking about characters and how the ending was better than they’d expected and for the first time I realised how important it is to be included rather than excluded in that particular communication ritual.

Every gain makes hearing impairment less isolating for our partners. I also remembered that Sue was wearing a T-shirt concerning a worldwide TV phenomenon when we first met – ‘I Shot JR’ her’s said while mine was black with H-D across it (no change there then).

Thanks subtitlers for helping our partners to join in.