How to… make your video accessible to Deaf audiences

The best way to make a video accessible to BSL users is to have an In-vision Signer superimposed onto the footage, this basically is just a posh way of saying ‘put the little person in the bottom corner’!

The presenter will sign the content of the programme in time with the audio.

This sounds very simple - and trust us, it is for our clients - but as a process it’s very difficult.

Presenters need to be biilingual and must have an excellent grasp of the English language and BSL. At Remark we only ever use native signers because we know that they make the best presenters. Why would we use someone who, on average, has only learnt to sign in the past 5-10 years?  Our presenters have been doing it from birth! We make sure they have their NVQ Level 4 (now Level 6) in BSL – we’re the only company to do that – and fully support them with BSL monitors and BSL interpreters.

What we are so good at is understanding the very specific nature of BSL and more importantly how to translate into BSL. 

Once you’ve got a skilled presenter and an experienced team to support them you need a studio. Ours is a broadcast studio which has been specifically created to suit the filming of BSL. Our lighting system took us six months to perfec - the most important thing when lighting for BSL is to avoid harsh front lights which create a shadow on the body.  For BSL users it is like watching four hands not two, imagine listening to echoed audio?!

Then you need edit suites which can chroma key out the signer. It all sounds very technical but if you get it wrong you end up with a green shadow around the signer, called an overspill.  We’re very proud to say our chroma keying is the best we’ve seen, there’s no overspill on our shoulders!

Subtitles are an additional extra to make your video accessible. It supports the BSL and allows Hard of Hearing audiences to follow the dialogue. We’ve got a helpful 'How to' guide for subtitling too.  Go on spoil yourself and have a read!

What you do:

1. Give us a copy of your video. DVcam or mini Dv is best
2. Email us the transcript of the programme – if you don’t have this rather
         helpfully, we have a Transcription service.
3. Pick your presenter and the clothing you’d like them to wear.
4. Sit back and relax until we deliver the final version to you

What we do:

1. Check with you what you need.
2. Receive the assets from you.
3. Confirm your choice of presenter.
4. Prepare for filming – format text, make sure the presenter and BSL
         monitor have this text for preparation time.
5. Film the translation in the broadcast studio.
6. Capture and edit the footage
7. Check the footage.
8. Add on the access options if these are required
9. Upload a version for your approval.
10. Export the approved version
11. Check again!
12. Deliver the new files to you