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The conference was held on March 17 both on-site as well as through videoconference, and attending the hybrid event were researchers and experts from several renowned international universities who presented their papers in various languages. Also in attendance at this multilingual academic day were many students and researchers from Moroccan and Italian universities as well as from other higher learning institutions elsewhere.
Translation and social inclusion
Throughout the conference, panelists came forward with a number of valuable presentations tackling the theme of accessibility to audio-visual content for people with disabilities. They put forward interesting approaches ranging from general considerations to more context-specific ones, such as accessibility in relation with the translation field. The rich discussions throughout the event provided participants with fresh perspectives on the theme and were intended to serve as a base for further academic research.
Dr. Jamal Al-Din Benhayoun, Vice President of Abdelmalek Essaadi University and also Dean of the university’s Faculty of Science, delivered a keynote speech during the opening session of this academic day.
The conference was held in three sessions, during which different panelists presented 11 research papers. The first session discussed the theme of “Accessibility and Translation,” the second session explored “Accessibility and Training,” while the third, chaired by Professor Alessandra Rizzo of the University of Palermo, was entitled “Cooperation and Accessibility: The Academic Industry.”
A group of professors and researchers from European universities and King Fahd School of Translation participated in all three sessions, with professors from King Fahd School of Translation delivering presentations in different languages.
Among the speakers in the first session was Mostafa Amadi, professor at King Fahd School of Translation, who presented his work titled “Translation and Accessibility in Morocco: A Multidisciplinary Approach.” In the paper, Amadi argued that the ultimate goal of accessibility is to create a “borderless” culture that is inclusive of all those who have physical obstacles.
He also tackled semantic and cultural barriers and he approached the theme from translation, education, social sciences and law perspectives, giving a number of steps/procedures that can help make a variety of content accessible to people with disabilities.
Professor Amadi gave examples of the Moroccan committees working on the subject, mainly the example of a music festival held in Fez and how the event’s planning sought to offer the artistic experience to people with audio/visual disabilities. He equally spoke of the “successful” inclusion of people with disabilities during the 2022 World Cup in Qatar, presenting a variety of instances where different needs were addressed during the international event.
Maria Valero, professor at the University of Parma, tackled accessibility in the specific context of cinema. She began her presentation with a film excerpt through which she gave an illustration on the difficulties facing people with visual disabilities in accessing cinematographic content.
The Italian academic then highlighted the importance of inclusion in the context of cinema and the participants were able to experience the difficulties facing people with visual disabilities. She concluded by providing guidelines and ideas to make the film industry inclusive for people with visual disabilities on the procedural level, in terms of script (linguistic aspects, word choice, conciseness…), production, and audio-description.
During the second session, a number of participants delivered their presentations on the challenges facing translators in today’s intimidatingly digitized world. Dr. Hamid Bargach, professor at King Fahd School of translation, delivered a presentation titled
Translation in the digital age
“Digital Communication and Accessibility: The Training of Tomorrow’s translator.” The paper tackled a host of important issues, such as the role of universities in the training of translators and the desired degree of “e-inclusion” of people with audio-visual disabilities. He also called for more harmonization of standards of training internationally, arguing that this would enrich the research done on the subject and create opportunities for expertise and experience sharing. Professor Antonio Velez chaired the final session which started with Dr Hicham Boughaba’s presentation titled “Audio-Visual Content and Accessibility to the Visually Impaired: The Case of Netflix.” He had conducted a survey among Netflix users and the findings suggested that these users preferred an “enhanced” experience of the streaming platform because of added values like sound/visual effects and special on-screen placing.
According to the organizers, the Academic day was an opportunity to examine the remarkable development in the media and communication sciences, as well as the dominance of sound and image on the forms of communication in our modern society that is governed by multilingualism, interculturalism, and ethnic diversity. Of note is that the universities of Abdelmalek Essaadi and Palermo are involved in a number of mutual projects that aim at creating fruitful research and mobility opportunities for researchers and professors.
In the Moroccan context, accessibility is a prioritized subject nowadays, and more initiatives and targeted programs are being implemented on the academic and social levels. The radical development in the means of communication in our modern society throughout history has resulted in the emergence of a new form of translation.
With this new form of translation being considered the core of communication portrayed in audio-visual translation, panelists concluded that training translators specializing in this field remains one of the main pillars for openness, development, and progress in today’s trends of unrelenting globalization and irreversible digitization.
