Liam O’Dell: The film industry should further explore immersive subtitles

While it may be phrased slightly different each time, the complaint I regularly see on Twitter is still very much the same: Imagine falling in love with someone to find they watch TV with the subtitles on.

Now the evidence to dispute such a claim is extensive, ranging from the fact that those for whom English is a second language find subtitles beneficial, to research which reveals that a lot of hearing people actually find them useful as well (I even posted a Twitter thread a while back citing some statistics).

Yet there’s one argument which has always been an interesting one to point out: films like The Hobbit trilogy use subtitles to provide clarity for fictional languages. Would you have it so that they weren’t there at all? I didn’t know you spoke fluent Elvish, Brenda.

The point is, people don’t complain when subtitles are immersed in the context of the film. While far from the definitive solution – open captions must always be available for deaf viewers – integrated captions could well be the middle ground and balance cinema companies mention when catering for both deaf and hearing audiences.

Of course, I should make it clear that I’m far from a movie buff. If it’s not the lack of subtitled screenings preventing me from seeing the latest blockbuster, then it’s the fact that a film often has to be a massive hit before I’m even remotely tempted to go through the lengthy process of booking a subtitled showing. I need to know that a film’s worth the effort.

The most recent film to meet that criteria, which I saw earlier this week, was Spider-Man: Into the Spiderverse.

Now I’ll refrain from criticising the fact that it’s hard to lipread masked superheroes (a point very well made by fellow Limping Chicken writer Ahmed Khalifa in a recent article), or that this particular screening was one without subtitles. Instead, I want to praise what is a phenomenal movie, especially for doing one thing in particular…

Don’t worry, it isn’t a spoiler, but at certain points, dialogue is written in comic book style, something which is both a nice homage to the swinging superhero’s original medium, but also a subtle way of including accessibility. It’s unfortunate that some hearing people see subtitles as an inconvenience – and we must never give up on fighting for accessibility – but immersive captioning which places subtitles within the story, as opposed to standard subtitles, could well be the way forward.

For instance, in a sci-fi film, why can’t a robot display dialogue on a screen as well as via speech? Sure, that may not be the best example, but given how masterful production studios are when it comes to Easter eggs, what’s stopping them from adopting a similar approach to inclusive captioning?

Already we’re seeing the trope of handwritten letters being read aloud as they’re displayed on screen. Filmmakers are finding their own creative ways of captioning their content and making it more accessible – whether intentional or not. Looking ahead to the future of film, here’s hoping captions become even more immersive.

Photo by Ollie Cole.

Liam is a mildly deaf freelance journalist and blogger from Bedfordshire. He wears bilateral hearing aids and makes the occasional video about deaf awareness on his YouTube channel. He can also be found talking about disability, politics, theatre, books and music on his Twitter, or on his blog, The Life of a Thinker.