Audio-visual translation and audio description

Audio description is a technique to make television shows, movies, and other video content more accessible to the blind or visually impaired. It is important to note that modern digital television has a built-in option for describing audio through text or speech. This should be distinct from the process of dubbing foreign-language movies into English. In the United States, a captioning service is required for those who are deaf or hard of hearing to provide subtitling for broadcast programs and movies. In other countries, such as Canada and Australia, captioning refers only to the provision of texts on their programs that are spoken inaudibly by the broadcaster. In Canada, the captioning service is called closed captioning. Over-the-air broadcasters and subscription television providers provide it. Canadian FCC-regulated cable and satellite providers are required to provide closed captions on all programming they transmit. Still, they are not required to provide equal hours of open captions. The Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) defines "subscription".   

Audio-visual translation is the process of translating audio-visual content into another language. It includes subtitling, dubbing and voice-over translation. Subtitling is translating a spoken language into written characters onscreen or displaying words on a computer monitor. It is primarily used for television broadcasts and the beginning of movies and video programs which still need to be dubbed or filmed in another language. Dubbing, sometimes known as voice-over translation, is the process by which sounds from one language are replaced with voices from another. This can be done in animation (or even live-action TV).  

Audio-visual translation is crucial for the global marketplace. It helps international customers understand products and services they may be interested in. With the spread of multinational companies, it is becoming increasingly important that these companies have bilingual customer service employees. Bilingualism is a complex skill and an essential factor in developing language competence. A common misconception is that individuals who speak two languages are automatically bilingual; this is only sometimes the case. Bilingual individuals can be multilingual or code-switch between the two languages, which presents different difficulties for those teaching bilinguals. Bilingual children often become bicultural and develop a theory of mind in one language. Still, the extent to which they do this depends on the age at which they learn their second language.