S4C AND RNID TO PROVIDE SUBTITLING SERVICE

S4C AND the Royal National Institute for Deaf people (RNID) have been working closely together with a view to providing the most comprehensive subtitling service for all the channel's viewers.
The RNID would like S4C to provide Welsh-language subtitles for Welsh-speaking viewers who are deaf or hard-of-hearing.
S4C currently provides English-language subtitles on over seventy per cent of Welsh language programmes on their analogue service. A Welsh-language service in simplified Welsh is provided for Welsh learners on ten hours of S4C's Welsh-language programmes.
RNID recognises that S4C are heavily committed to their subtitling service that provides for non-Welsh speakers, and Welsh learners as well as deaf and hard-of-hearing people. However, they believe that subtitling in the mother tongue of many of the channel's viewers is needed.
In conjunction with the RNID, S4C have conducted research among a sample of S4C viewers and have now concluded that a more wide-ranging and detailed study of the viewers' needs is essential before developing the subtitling service.
One of the options is to develop a subtitling service in simplified Welsh which would cater for Welsh learners and deaf and hard-of-hearing Welsh-speakers. S4C and the RNID will now test the most suitable level of Welsh-language subtitling for a target audience which includes Welsh speakers, people with different degrees of hearing difficulties and Welsh learners at various levels.
S4C Chief Executive, Huw Jones, said: "We are committed to providing a service which is as inclusive and comprehensive as possible. S4C's television audience has potentially a wide range of subtitling needs. We need therefore to look at all options in order to develop a service which brings the greatest benefit to our viewers in as cost-effective a way as possible." (CD)