You can take the subtitler out of the office, but even in Disneyland, she’ll still be a subtitler!

On a trip to LA, I was delighted to discover that Disney provides access services. To my patient family’s chagrin, I had to find out more about how the shows and rides are captioned.

One of the signature shows at Disneyland is called Fantasmic! It’s the story of Mickey Mouse’s imagination, which conjures up terrifying creatures who must be destroyed. The battle comes to life through huge models, dazzling pyrotechnics and laser displays projected onto dancing water features. Guests stand literally in their thousands around the lake to view these special effects. Halfway through, a full-size galleon sails past, carrying the costumed cast who enact Peter Pan’s vanquishing of Captain Hook. The show is a spectacle indeed. So how on earth do they caption it?

Captions are supplied through a cunning handheld device that looks like a sat nav. The pre-prepared text appears on its LED screen, one page at a time rather than scrolling word-by-word, and is automatically synced up with the show. Users can pause or rewind the pages of captions whenever they like. In TV subtitling, colours are used to indicate different speakers but on this device each speaker is labelled. For instance: “CAPTAIN HOOK: You scurvy seadog, Peter Pan! I’ll get you!” Music is also labelled, along with certain sound effects.

The device also contains the captions for many of the rides. If you’ve never been Disney-fied you might not immediately grasp why a theme park ride would need subtitles! Lots of the rides take guests through a world and use characters’ voices to enhance that world, for example the Pirates Of The Caribbean ride. Again, the captioning device is synced up to the ride so that the pirates’ words appear on the little screen as you sail by. Warnings about keeping your hands and feet inside the boat at all times are also captioned.

I was impressed with the devices but I was also aware that the same challenges of TV subtitling applied. The captions worked best when they relayed information essential for the telling of the story, especially at the beginning of Fantasmic! when the premise was established. They were less enjoyable when reflecting background conversations and atmospheric elements like music. I’m sure the same could be said for TV subtitles, especially during highly visual sequences like fights. Very occasionally I found the captions gave me more information than I had actually picked up aurally, for instance when labelling an unseen speaker in Mr Toad’s Wild Ride as a “British butler”. Again, this can be a challenge when subtitling TV and trying to strike the balance between providing all the facts and being too explicit.

Have you been anywhere recently with a novel approach to improving access? Let us know in the comments box below!

Rachel Thorn, Subtitler