Inclusive Theatres as Boosters of Well-being:

Concepts and Practices

Authors

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.47476/jat.v5i1.2022.223

Keywords:

media accessibility; inclusive theatre; reception studies; audience participation; subjective well-being

Abstract

With the surge in media accessibility studies, researchers have explored the possibility of using psychological indicators to study modes of production, consumption, and reception of audiovisual and accessible media texts. However, most of the methodologies and measures applied so far tend to evaluate perception and/or reception in the short term, i.e., immediately after viewing media texts or attending live performances. This article moves from previous articles on inclusive theatres (Di Giovanni, 2021; Raffi, 2021) and sets forth to evaluate individuals’ reactions to inclusive activities in the medium to long-term. To this end, the concept of well-being becomes central, along with some of the measures and tools so far employed to measure it outside the realm of accessibility studies.

Lay summary

Media accessibility is the research area dealing with the theories, practices, and instruments that provide access to media products, services, and environments for people that cannot, or cannot properly, access that content in its original form. Media accessibility research has truly blossomed in the past years and has welcomed new, often not-so-close theoretical and methodological approaches. More recently, researchers have explored the possibility of using psychological indicators to evaluate perception and/or reception in the medium to long-term, i.e., the medium to long-term effects of inclusive practices in theatre and other media experiences. To this end, the concept of well-being becomes central, along with some of the measures and tools so far employed to measure it outside the realm of media accessibility studies. This article moves from previous studies on inclusive theatres, which place the people and their diverse abilities at the core, to prove that it is time to move beyond the well-established practices of feedback collection immediately or soon after a performance or event. By reporting on a two-month experiment with young people with sensory disabilities who were trained to be inclusive guides in theatres, our aim is to reflect on the impact of such events, and of participation, on people’s lives in the medium to long-term.

Downloads

Download data is not yet available.

Author Biographies

Elena Di Giovanni, University of Macerata

Elena Di Giovanni is Associate Professor of English Translation at the University of Macerata (accredited for full professorship as of 2020). From 2016 to 2021, she was President of ESIST, the European Association for Studies in Screen Translation. She is one of the founding members - and Editorial Board member - of the open access Journal of Audiovisual Translation - JAT (www.jatjournal.org). In 2019, she was Fulbright Distinguished Chair at the University of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, and is now part of the international Fulbright evaluation team. From 2008 to 2016 she was Visiting Lecturer at Roehampton University, London, UK, Masters' Degree in audiovisual translation and accessibility. Since 2013, she lectures on audiovisual translation and accessibility at the Venice Film Festival (Mostra Internazionale d'Arte Cinematografica di Venezia), within the European Parliament-funded LUX Prize for cinema (27 Times Cinema). She currently supervises many accessibility projects throughout Italy: InclusivOpera at the Macerata Opera Festival (since 2009), the OPEN project at Teatro Grande in Brescia (since 2017), plus the Teatro Pavarotti Freni in Modena, Teatro Sociale in Como, Fondazione Rete Lirica delle Marche. In 2021, she delivered a TED X talk on accessibility and inclusion. A full list of publications is available here: http://docenti.unimc.it/elena.digiovanni#content=publications

Francesca Raffi, University of Macerata

Francesca Raffi is a Senior Research Fellow in English Translation at the University of Macerata where she has been teaching English language and translation at undergraduate and postgraduate levels since 2015. She holds a PhD in English for Special Purposes and Audiovisual Translation from the University of Naples Federico II and she is a Chartered Linguist of the Chartered Institute of Linguists (UK). Since 2010 she has worked as a professional translator mainly in the field of audiovisual translation and accessibility to media, arts, and culture. Since 2016, she has been collaborating with the Department of Modern Languages and Cultures, University of Liverpool (UK), where she became an Honorary Fellow in January 2019. Since 2016, she is a member of AIA (Associazione Italiana di Anglistica), ESIST (European Association for the study of Screen Translation), IATIS (International Association for Translation and Intercultural Studies), SUBTLE (The British Subtitlers’ Association), and EST (European Society for Translation Studies). Her detailed list of publications is available here: http://docenti.unimc.it/f.raffi#content=publications

Downloads

Published

2022-07-29

How to Cite

Di Giovanni, E., & Raffi, F. (2022). Inclusive Theatres as Boosters of Well-being: : Concepts and Practices. Journal of Audiovisual Translation, 5(1), 166–185. https://doi.org/10.47476/jat.v5i1.2022.223

Issue

Section

Research articles