What it's all about:

Not only structural measures, but also the accessibility of communicative processes are aimed at the participation of all and the empowerment of collectives. Translation as social action can in principle be seen as a strategy for reducing barriers. In audiovisual and technical language communication in particular, there is currently an increasing number of activities focussing on accessibility in linguistic and cultural transfer processes.

More specifically:

"Accessibility is essential for 10 per cent of the population, necessary for 40 per cent of the population and comfortable for 100 per cent of the population. Everyone benefits from an obstacle-free environment" (source: Barrier-free ICT - for the benefit of all, brochure, December 2016, Digital Austria). Barriers of all kinds stand in the way of an inclusive society and the civic participation of all social groups in social events. Not only structural measures (with which accessibility is usually most readily associated), but also decisions relating to communicative processes are aimed at the participation of all and the empowerment of certain collectives. In principle, translation in its various forms can be seen as a strategy for reducing barriers in this communicative field. In recent years, there has therefore been an increase in research endeavours that aim to reconcile translation, communication and accessibility (particularly in relation to audiovisual and technical language communication). Phenomena such as subtitling for the hearing impaired and deaf, audio description, written interpreting, sign language interpreting, texts and communication in an easily understandable form and much more are currently becoming the focus of translation studies research, which aims to get to the bottom of intralingual, interlingual and intersemiotic transfer processes with the aim of breaking down communicative barriers.

Coordination:
Marco Agnetta, Cornelia Feyrer

Persons active in the focus area:
Marco Agnetta
Cornelia Feyrer