Glossary

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Scene Description(also: SD, Visual Description)

A textual description of the visual elements in a video scene — including objects, people, settings, actions, and visual cues — that can be converted into audio through text-to-speech technology. Scene descriptions serve as the basis for audio descriptions, making video content…

Scrubbing(also: Video Scrubbing, Timeline Scrubbing)

The interaction of dragging a playhead across a video or audio timeline to preview content at arbitrary positions, typically with real-time visual or audio feedback. Scrubbing is ubiquitous in video editors, NLEs, DAWs, and subtitle-authoring tools. From an accessibility…

Sign Language Interpretation(also: Sign Language Interpreting, SLI)

The process of conveying spoken or written language into a sign language (or vice versa) by a trained interpreter, enabling communication access for Deaf and hard of hearing individuals. In digital media and immersive environments, sign language interpretation is typically…

Signer Box(also: Signing Space, Sign Space)

The three-dimensional space in front of a sign language user within which signs are produced, typically extending from the waist to just above the head and about an arm's width to either side. The signer box is a critical concept in sign language video production, video…

Signer Placement(also: Interpreter Placement)

The spatial positioning of a sign language interpreter or signing instructor relative to instructional content in a video, videoconference, or immersive environment. Common arrangements include a side or corner window (typical in broadcast and videoconferencing), parallel…

Social Media Video Captions(also: SMVC)

An umbrella term for the textual or symbolic elements — platform-generated captions, creator-edited captions, user-generated captions, and non-speech information such as sound effects, music cues, or onomatopoeia — that are temporally aligned with video content on social media…

Sonic Storytelling(also: Audio Storytelling, Sound-Based Narrative)

The practice of conveying narrative, emotion, and information primarily through audio elements including narration, dialogue, sound effects, music, and spatial audio. In accessibility contexts, sonic storytelling is the approach used to make inherently visual media like comics,…

Sound Communication Technology(also: SCT)

Technologies designed to communicate aspects of sound through non-auditory sensory modalities, enabling access to audio information for people who are d/Deaf or hard of hearing. Examples include closed captions (text-based), vibrating vests (haptic), spectrograms (visual…

Sound Design(also: Audio Design)

The craft of creating, selecting, and arranging audio elements - dialogue, music, ambient sound, foley, and effects - to shape the experience of a film, game, broadcast, or interactive product. For accessibility, sound design is doubly important: it carries narrative and…

Sound Effect(also: SFX, Audio Effect)

An artificially created or enhanced sound used to emphasize or accompany actions, events, or atmosphere in media. In accessible webtoon and comic production, sound effects are categorized into five types: environmental ambience (crowd cheering, classroom conversations),…

Sound Representation(also: Sound Depiction)

The methods and conventions used to convey audio information through text in captions and other written formats. Common approaches include descriptive text (explaining the sound source and quality), onomatopoeia (words that mimic sounds), and sensory quality-focused descriptions…

Speaker Diarisation(also: Speaker Diarization, Speaker Segmentation)

The automatic process of segmenting an audio recording by speaker identity — answering "who spoke when" — and labelling each segment. A critical pre-requisite for accessible transcripts of multi-voice audio such as interviews, podcasts, and meetings, since a flat transcript…

Speaker Identification(also: Speaker ID, Speaker Attribution)

Methods used in captions and subtitles to indicate which person is currently speaking, enabling viewers to follow conversations among multiple participants. Common in-text speaker identification techniques include double chevrons (>>) with speaker names, different text colors…

Speech Gap(also: Dialogue Gap, Audio Gap)

A pause or silence between spoken dialogue in a video or film where audio descriptions can be inserted without overlapping with the original soundtrack. Identifying speech gaps is a critical first step in audio description production, as descriptions must fit within these…

Split-Attention Effect(also: Split Attention)

A cognitive load phenomenon that occurs when learners or viewers must divide their visual attention between multiple sources of information that are physically or temporally separated. In captioned media, the split-attention effect occurs when viewers must read captions while…

Subtitle(also: Subtitles, Open captions (video), Movie subtitles)

On-screen text that reproduces the spoken dialogue of a video, most commonly rendered in a "movie subtitle" style (white text with a black outline, one or two lines at the bottom of the frame). Subtitles are closely related to captions but are conventionally distinguished in…

Subtitles

Text displayed on screen that represents the spoken language in audio-visual content, primarily intended for viewers who do not understand the language being spoken. While often used interchangeably with captions, subtitles and captions serve different purposes: subtitles…

Subtitles(also: Captions, Closed Captions, CC)

Text displayed on screen that represents the spoken dialogue and other relevant audio information in video content. Subtitles (called captions in North America) are essential for deaf and hard of hearing viewers but are also widely used by hearing audiences in noisy…

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