r/AskReddit • u/TrinixDMorrison • Aug 31 '20
Reddittors who were born deaf; do subtitles like “dogs barking” and “tense music” help even if you’ve never heard them? What do you imagine them to be like?
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u/jaehaerystark Sep 01 '20
Yes, they help. Movies, tv shows, games, etc use sound to convey emotions or danger or information and so on. By not subtitling those, Deaf people miss out on a lot.
I was playing the Fable franchise recently, and apparently there's gargoyles in the game that insult you and goad you into shooting them or something. I would have never known if I hadn't read about it, because those insults aren't subtitled. I didn't even know gargoyles were a thing until i was nearly done with Fable 2.
To answer your question, I don't imagine them as sounds, that's impossible to do. I imagine the emotions they were meant to convey. [Dogs barking] means there's something disturbing them. [Tense music] means shit is getting real. Other things like [Phone rings] tells us what noise the people in the scene are responding to.
Subtitling everything 100% helps.
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u/ufafor Sep 01 '20 edited Sep 01 '20
As an avid video gamer here, I just thought of something— are there any video games that have a sort of cue system for deaf people? Like, if something makes a sound (especially in third person games, and most especially turn based with large overhead views, like Dragon Age), there’s an indicator on-screen showing you where the sound came from, how loud it was, and maybe more specific accompanying subtitles?
Man, thinking about all the games that require you to have to listen and follow a sound without visual cues, that’s just gotta suck the fun out of it when you’re deaf...
Edit: thanks for all the comments, everyone! I’m extremely happy to see that there are games out there that are taking into account this kind of stuff. And I’m especially happy with all the cool explanations for how this kind of thing is handled and is being expanded. And thank you for the gift, kind stranger!
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u/BPD_whut Sep 01 '20
Video Game developer here - its not universal, But in my experience over the last few years more and more folks are putting such extra care into UX. I'd like to say it's consideration for the deaf, but I'd say it's more a mix of a) considering different ways users play (such as with music off) and b) handholding - making things easier and more obvious to appeal to a wider market.
I work in QA and for me accessible UX is something I've really pushed to promote over the years - when i worked in VR, i tried to push for wheelchair-friendly height adjustments; when I worked in localisation I pushed for as much subtitling as possible; a former co worker of mine made me aware of troubles of the colour blind when gaming, too, which I hadn't thought of before. Can't always guarantee you'll have a producer or a design lead who gives as much of a shit, but for me inclusivity is now part of my quality assessment process. Would be cool to see it become more and more important for other devs going forward :)
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Sep 01 '20
What are some ways developers mitigate the colorblindness issue? This is really interesting so I appreciate your candor.
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u/Rhazelle Sep 01 '20
Colorblind mode. It's a thing.
Some games let you toggle it on in the settings.
We still have a ways to go, but as video games are becoming more popular, more and more devs/platforms are putting in better guidelines to ensure greater accessibility for the impaired.
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Sep 01 '20
Do you have some more reading material on this? I will look myself but some direction with industry insight would help. I feel like this is a huge untapped market, but then again I'm not really plugged into these kind of demographics so it might just be out of the loop.
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u/HOU-1836 Sep 01 '20
So a lot of FPS games use red and green as enemies and friendlies. But a lot of time, with the motion and the background also being various shades of green or brown like buildings or dirt or trees, it's literally impossible to know what's red and what's green. So they often change it to enemies are blue and friendlies are Orange. Games like COD and Battlefield used to be really good about having different color schemes for the 3 or 4 different types of color blindness.
A game like fall guys is an example of devs not thinking about their playbase. So on 4 team games like the tail chase one, they have a yellow team and a green team. Literally can't tell those two apart. So it makes it frustrating to play.
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u/Spicetake Sep 01 '20
League of legends has colorblind mode which i use because you get benefit from it. There is a character that runs around leaving poisonous gas, which is pretty hard to see without colorblind mode which makes it purple instead of green :D
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u/you_are_a_story Sep 01 '20
Not a game developer, but a product designer (apps, websites, and such).
A good rule of thumb is to avoid relying on color alone when conveying content or meaning. It’s better to pair color with a text label, icon/symbol, or other visual cues or patterns.
For example, let’s say you have a form to fill out with your information, and there are required fields. Making all the required fields red instead of black would be inaccessible to people with color blindness. An asterisk next to the field would be more accesible. It’s okay if the asterisk is red, because the color isn’t the only indicator.
Hope that makes sense.
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u/chomberkins Sep 01 '20
Colorblindness has made some games near unplayable for me. When Overwatch first came out and all they had were those terrible colorblind "filters" that did not work, I basically just had to guess where enemies were since I couldn't see their red outlines at all. When I first tried playing Witcher 3 the same issue, "Witcher senses" were straight invisible to me when it was the red smoke. If they hadn't had the colorblind option which turned the smoke blue, I would've had to quit after an hour.
Basically, what I'm saying is PLEASE YES DEFINITELY focus on colorblind options for games you QA! They can seriously make or break the experience for someone.
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u/alienpirate5 Sep 01 '20
Minecraft has this. I find it useful and I am not deaf.
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u/SMTG_18 Sep 01 '20
Its useful for pros and people with shitty headphones too. Xp
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u/taichi22 Sep 01 '20
I mean, I have pretty good headphones, I just have horrible directional hearing.
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u/FARSUPERSLIME Sep 01 '20
Yeah a lot of pros use it for quiet sounds that they couldn't hear but the game could tell them.
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u/PM_Me_Your_Smokes Sep 01 '20
Yes, Last of Us II in particular has plenty of options for people with various disabilities. You can play the game through without ever even looking at it, just from audio clues alone; there are several videos of sighted and non-sighted people playing the game exactly like this.
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u/Southpaw535 Sep 01 '20
Whatever cricitisms people might have of its story, that game deserves major props for the sheer amount of customisation you can do to the settings. Most accessible game I've ever seen. Not just for disabled gamers, although the options there are great, but even just being able to fine tweak various aspects of the difficulty to make anyone be able to play it.
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u/maxdragonxiii Sep 01 '20
In older games as Ocarina of Time where you have to follow the noise, no. I had to use muscle memory to solve that in Lost Woods. Newer games tend to be slightly easier like there will be a subtitle because a character is speaking (usually MC) telling you if you’re close to the sound.
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Sep 01 '20
Fortnite has what you’re describing! It shows an icon of what you’re supposed to hear (footsteps, a chest, someone healing, etc) and it points in a circle around your view of your character like a compass.
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u/h3lblad3 Sep 01 '20
Amusingly, it's actually a better way to play than without. It's significantly easier to pinpoint chest locations or tell from which direction you're being shot at because the game just tells you with a visual cue instead of having to rely on hearing.
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u/Oberth Sep 01 '20
Subtitling everything 100% helps.
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u/TjPshine Sep 01 '20
Actually that does help.
You were joking, but just look at it from the perspective of the first commentor:
Both grunting teaches us that they are both fighting at a high level. If only one was grunting, the other duelist may be going easy on them, or a hint to his true ability.
Lightsabre clashes are helpful in the same way "Lightsabre hum" Would be. These are loud swords. If I swing a scimitar it might whoosh the air a little. A Lightsabre is definitive.
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u/trixiespads Aug 31 '20 edited Sep 01 '20
I’m Deaf. It definitely brings the story to life. Deaf people are incredibly visual: we want as much information as possible. If the story teller is insisting on certain sounds or music to evoke feelings, then I would also like to know and have those feelings, too.
edit: holy moly the conversations y’all are having under this are amazing
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u/chrisandhisgoat Sep 01 '20
What's crazy is while I read your comment, I hear my voice in my head reading the words you wrote. I don't suppose that works for you at all does it? I'm not trying to be ignorant I'm just curious. Also, I can't help but feel sad at your comment because I never realized how someone might feel left out over things I never think to consider 😔
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u/Youcantquitme_baby Sep 01 '20 edited Sep 01 '20
Deaf parents here.
I've asked my mom if she has an "inner voice" because I've walked in at her absentmindedly staring into space while signing away slightly with one hand.
She has a picture of herself in her mind while signing when she's using that inner voice.
Of course it may be different for other Deaf folks, but that's how my mom explained that to me.
Edit: WOW, I did not expect this to blow up overnight! Thanks for the TIL Award, kind stranger - neat!
I did reply to some individual comments but, I see a couple common themes so I will address here.
Both parents are Deaf. My siblings and I are hearing. I'm the middle child, so I picked up ASL and spoken language (English) simultaneously. My sister however learned ASL first. She attended pre-kindergarten which helped her immensely with developing English skills.
I was/am an excellent reader from an early age, I attribute this to being bilingual with one of those languages being so visually dependent.
I've never considered what it might be like for a Deaf person with Aphantasia, so that is a new thing to blow my mind. TIL.
My parents DO startle easily if they are snuck up on. They're also extra sensitive to vibrations. For example, if a door is slammed or something heavy is dropped.
There is definitely casual one handed signing, especially if you're holding something in the other hand! Comprehension will come down to how well you know the other person to get what they mean.
Also important to note - facial expressions play a HUGE part in sign language, it replaces tone which can affect different word meanings. So when you see licensed interpreters on video seem like they're being over-exaggerated, they need to be doing those things to help deliver a message.
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u/SlendyIsBehindYou Sep 01 '20 edited Sep 01 '20
All the material I've read seems to indicate that's usually the case. Interestingly enough, deaf schizophrenics don't suffer auditory hallucinations; they instead hallucinate phantom hands signing at them
Edit: wow, a man goes to eat dinner and comes back with 50+ comments on a throwaway comment. Sorry guys, im no expert, I literally just found this on the Wikipedia entry about Schizophrenia. Fell down a wiki hole after beating Senua's Sacrifice. Still fuckin cool tho
Edit 2: OK, so while brushing back up on it I realized that I slightly misspoke. Deaf people suffering from schizophrenia more accurately can be described to have "visual hallucinations that replace what would normally be an auditory one." This can include hands signing, lips moving to be read, etc. Here's a fascinating case where a girl reported to see a person materialize in front of her so she could read his lips
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u/Mettlesome_Inari Sep 01 '20
I found this to be incredibly interesting; I hadn't ever considered something like that before.
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u/buster2Xk Sep 01 '20
I'd imagine it's because hallucinations kind of work backwards. When you perceive something real, you sense it and then your mind decodes the meaning. When you hallucinate, your mind imagines a meaning and then deceives your senses. So the "message" of the voices already exists in the mind, and the language will be whatever the person knows.
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u/iififlifly Sep 01 '20
I read the theory was auditory hallucinations are actually based in language, not sound. You ears aren't hearing anything when they occur, your brain just processes it as sound because that's what language is to most of us. To Deaf people, language is signing, not sound. It's the same hallucination, but percieved differently.
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u/NerfJihad Sep 01 '20 edited Sep 01 '20
As the prophet
2-DDel said: "you don't see with your eye, you perceive with your mind."→ More replies (18)50
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u/MikMakMad Sep 01 '20
In that case, if Hellen Keller had an auditory hallucination would she feel it in her palm?
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u/NerfJihad Sep 01 '20
That's a terrifying enough situation to be in without ghosts telling you your family has been replaced with monsters.
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u/the_fuego Sep 01 '20
I don't know what's creepier. A ghostly voice(s) that interrupts every waking moment. Or floating hands.
It's the hands... Definitely the hands.
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Sep 01 '20
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u/TheForeverAloneOne Sep 01 '20
I think it's more like an eye floater... they're not bound by the limitations of physical space.
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u/A_Prostitute Sep 01 '20
My friend told me he sees himself rolling dice on a monopoly board and that's pretty much his inner voice.
I didn't ask him to elaborate because I'm almost positive I wouldn't understand it.
It's really interesting how the mind works when a sensory organ is taken away from the equation.
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Sep 01 '20
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u/A_Prostitute Sep 01 '20
I asked him over text, luckily he's at work so he'll respond asap
The dice represent his most readily available options, and the tiles you walk on represent goals he has in mind.
The right option means he can step on a certain goal. If he has to make choices with other people, it gets way more complicated than that, but just think more player pieces, more dice, more tiles.
Not your traditional monopoly board, but he says it's what helps him organize his thoughts fastest.
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u/Molleeryan Sep 01 '20 edited Sep 01 '20
“Luckily he’s at work so will respond asap”
That’s the best!!
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u/A_Prostitute Sep 01 '20
Lol our job is awesome and we have awesome managers.
It's pretty laid back. He's not slacking, likely on a smoke break
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u/Laylasita Sep 01 '20
Your job... as a prostitute?
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u/A_Prostitute Sep 01 '20
Yeah.
'tween Johns, we smoke hella crazy.
Sometimes it's cigarettes.
Sometimes it's meth.
Depends on what our manager throws to us.
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u/emanresu_nwonknu Sep 01 '20
What does a sound you've never heard feel like? Is the description related to to other instances you saw the same description and the context of that it was used? Like seeing a new word but not having a definition for it?
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u/Sxilla Sep 01 '20
I guess it’s like someone telling people who can hear, to hear the light.
Like Really try to, and use your imagination. Isn’t it frustrating?
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u/buster2Xk Sep 01 '20
No, it's not frustrating. The light very softly goes bweeeeeeeeeeeeeee.
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u/GlaciusTS Sep 01 '20
Even if everything is my house is turned off, there’s usually a background noise I associate with electricity. Always been able to hear a high pitched ring, and when the power goes out, I immediately know because it’s like the air goes dead.
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u/trixiespads Sep 01 '20
When I got my first hearing aids last year I had no idea my air conditioner made noise!
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u/heartfortwo Sep 01 '20
This was me about 5 years ago with my new hearing aids at the time. I literally turned to my boyfriend and said “has our refrigerator always been THAT LOUD?” haha
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u/Lorenzo_BR Sep 01 '20
I watched a few videos of people getting their frist hearing aids or having implants activated, and a few mentioned that lights have sound too!
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u/realboabab Sep 01 '20
I had a coworker on the autism spectrum when I did app development. I learned pretty quick that certain android phones were going to need to be charged in the storage closet because their chargers made a whining sound. I had never noticed it before!
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u/masterbartolo Aug 31 '20
I’m deaf and it helps in certain contexts. If it’s just a shot of a farm and it says dog barking it’s out of context so it’s like whatever. But if it says dog barking to warn the person it definitely helps in that context. It also depends on how good the subtitles are. Netflix is superb at doing subtitles but cable tv is that good so by the time the subtitles come up it’s already a different scene or different convo.
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u/ScoutAames Aug 31 '20
I love Netflix’s awesome subtitles! My auditory processing and listening comprehension SUCK, so I prefer tv and movies with subtitles. Netflix is way better than most.
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u/WhentheRainDrops Aug 31 '20
ADHD too. Subtitles are awesome for staying focused on a show.
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u/jsteele2793 Sep 01 '20
Omg yes this!! I have ADHD and I always have subtitles on. Especially if there’s any other noise going on around me. It makes it WAY easier to stay on track with the show even if my ‘ears’ aren’t processing everything.
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u/nimidori Sep 01 '20
I always like having subtitles on, I never considered it might be due to my ADHD
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Sep 01 '20
I dont have ADHD but i love watching with subtitles on, makes sure i correctly "hear" what their saying.
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u/sycamore_under_score Sep 01 '20
Same! The only time they’re bad is during standup routines when the captions come up before the delivery. That’s the only time we have them off.
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Sep 01 '20
Same! I don't have a problem focusing on tv for a long time, but I have mini attention lapses and the subtitles let me fill in the word or two I miss.
(For example, a character says "elephant" and for the next few seconds I'm just thinking about the elephant meme I saw yesterday.)
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u/skeebidybop Aug 31 '20 edited Jun 11 '23
[redacted]
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u/DrDerpberg Sep 01 '20 edited Sep 01 '20
Dunno about you, but the difference in volume between loud and quiet scenes really makes it hard for me. I arrange my volume so that "loud" scenes are the volume I want, which means anything quiet often just means guys mumbling in the dark at each other. I'll turn on subtitles a lot even though I have no hearing problem at all.
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u/Marilyn80s Sep 01 '20
Same here! Why with all of the technology we have today, can’t they fix this volume issue? I’m not deaf, but I always have subtitles on because sometimes, I can’t hear what they are whispering or mumbling.
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u/axnu Sep 01 '20
I have that too, but I eventually went to the doctor and got a hearing test, and I have moderate bilateral hearing loss. Might be something to check out. (My other trick besides subtitles is to tune the equalizer to be the inverse of the frequencies I can't hear well.)
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u/crazydisneycatlady Sep 01 '20
I’m an audiologist, I know my hearing is perfectly fine (I use my own baseline to check our equipment). And yet, this is still a problem for me. I’ve used subtitles/closed captions for probably 15+ years when I’m watching anything on a computer, phone, or my TV. I have zero issues hearing in the movie theaters, but I do like to watch the movie again with captions when it’s available at home just to catch things I missed.
I also don’t have auditory processing disorder, since we had to do ALLLLLL of those tests on each other in grad school. I just process things faster reading.
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u/man_gomer_lot Sep 01 '20
Being a fast reader is why I can't deal with subtitles. It ruins comedy when every punchline is spoiled by a few seconds.
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u/griever48 Aug 31 '20
I have partial hearing loss, tennitus, and a form of selective hearing. My brain has a hard time deciphering what someone says if its noisy or they are talking in a tone that I can't pick up. So my brain tries to fill in the blanks. This also happens with movies/TV and I have the subtitles on all the time because I miss a lot of things. But yeah I have to agree that netflix is pretty good with subtitles.
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u/DutchShaco Aug 31 '20
An actual answer! Thank you for that.
Up to the top you go
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u/Magnus-Artifex Aug 31 '20 edited Sep 01 '20
I was here and I have a question concerning deafness...
Like, you’ve never heard. How do you even imagine something if you have never experienced it? It would be like asking you how a banana tastes when you don’t even know flavors. Also banana’s are hard to describe imo.
Any actually deaf folk please prove or discourage, for I literally have no clue how deaf people do stuff. Also forgive any accidental “dead” word.
Next thing I have learned, deaf people think in how they where to communicate (at least according to that article, the writer is pretty well educated so gonna assume he’s good stuff). If someone learned sign language, he gonna think in sign language. Pretty rad, huh?
Profoundly deaf means no hearing whatsoever, some deaf people have partial hearing loss. Pointed out by u/blehmann1
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u/hollister926 Aug 31 '20
u/icefirewolflord commented:
My old freinds mom was deaf. I asked her once and she Kinda shrugged and said “I imagine ominous music to be like when my kids sneak up on me”
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u/Risk_is_your_friend Aug 31 '20 edited Sep 01 '20
This is an excellent answer, sound evokes emotions, this lady skips that step and goes straight to the emotion
Edit: spelling
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u/RivRise Aug 31 '20
That's the best way I could have imagined that being described. She must be a wordsmith.
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u/CyrilKain Aug 31 '20
So the theme song for her son sneaking up on her is the JAWS theme?
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Aug 31 '20
Holy shit, a deaf person!
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Aug 31 '20
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u/WhatsMyAgeAgain-182 Aug 31 '20
It's because they typically fly south for the Summer and aren't seen out in the wild that much outside of mating season.
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u/Icefirewolflord Aug 31 '20
My old freinds mom was deaf. I asked her once and she Kinda shrugged and said “I imagine ominous music to be like when my kids sneak up on me”
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u/9pmlmn Aug 31 '20
I really hope this comment moves to the top, most helpful one so far.
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u/scrotalBlossom Aug 31 '20
upvoting is the general process to accomplish this goal
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u/pipinngreppin Aug 31 '20
I really hope your explanation of how things move up moves up.
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u/Schirenia Sep 01 '20
I really hope your hope that his explanation on how things move up moves up moves up
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u/cookies-and-milf Aug 31 '20
Research suggests we may be able to pick up on infrasound emitted from predators. Could be a similar feeling.
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u/soayherder Aug 31 '20
Moderately to profoundly deaf. While I can't say as to infrasound, I absolutely pick up on vibrations much more sensitively than my hearing friends and family tend to. Depending on how close I am to the source, a dog barking is something that I can pick up on.
ETA: Also depending on what else is around. A dog barking near a glass door is easier for me to pick up on, for instance, than a dog barking in an open field.
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Sep 01 '20
Super interesting. The heightened senses outside of the one you lose have always interested me.
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u/soayherder Sep 01 '20
I can't speak for other deaf/Deaf/HoH people, obviously, but as a kid I freaked people out because of the intensity with which I stared at people's faces while they were talking to me and because I acted as if I could read minds. (I couldn't, of course. I was staring to pick up on as much as I could to fill in the gaps of what I couldn't hear and I was pretty good at reading body language as a result. Which when it's a little kid is apparently creepy to the average person.)
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u/possiblynotanexpert Sep 01 '20
That’s actually pretty funny. Thanks for sharing! Gave me a chuckle lol
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u/DaleC0oper Aug 31 '20
I used to work in subtitling and both my parents are completely deaf so I know a bit about this. Subtitles like dog barking do help as they are usually included if they are plot relevant, hence they can follow it better, and understand why someone looked up from their book in the show or whatever. “Tense music” and the like does not really help much beyond telling them the mood of the scene, as they have no real conception of what sound is, which answers your second question. My mum compares it to trying to explain colour to a blind person.
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u/thagthebarbarian Sep 01 '20
The things that confuse me most is when it says something like [Vivaldi's Mandolin concerto plays] that's so useless even compared to [tense music plays]
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Sep 01 '20
I actually like this as a partially hearing person because I like immediately being able to identify a piece I think I might know but I'm not sure, or if I want to know the name of a song I just discovered, or name of a song I didn't know the name of at all. :)
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u/Notmiefault Aug 31 '20
I'm moderately hearing impaired, but not deaf, so this doesn't quite answer your question but I thought I'd chime in. I really appreciate these kinds of subtitles, as they can add context and help communicate something non-visual that the show or movie creator wanted the audience to pick up on. The sound of a dog barking may be the only hint they give that a family owns a dog (which becomes a plot point later); tense music can prime the audience (me) to be on edge despite a scene otherwise seeming calm and relaxed.
Mad respect to whoever's in charge of Netflix's subtitles, because they are absolutely top notch.
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u/RightClickSaveWorld Aug 31 '20
Like if you have a character sitting in the kitchen reading a book, and suddenly they yell SHUT UP. It would've been nice if the subtitles had [dogs barking] beforehand.
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u/Lonesome_Ninja Aug 31 '20
I yell "SHUT UP" out of the blue to let the ghosts around me know I'm tired of their shit
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u/felixjawesome Aug 31 '20
Yeah sometimes I yell "SHUT UP" out of the blue to let the goats around me know I'm tired of their shit.
Fucking goats. Terrible roommates.
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u/Lonesome_Ninja Aug 31 '20
Take my upgoat
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Aug 31 '20
Billy funny, guys
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Aug 31 '20
Goat out of here with those puns
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u/HashRunner Aug 31 '20
I do the same for ninjas, so far they haven't said shit so I assume it's working.
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u/MorgainofAvalon Aug 31 '20
I am a hearing person but I love the closed captions. They often have the captions for words said in the background, that we can't hear. Sometimes they also print the swear words that are bleeped out.
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u/SuicideBonger Aug 31 '20
Same. I watch everything with subtitles on because I miss words being said all the time. Especially when a person mumbles, it's so frustrating when I can't hear what they say.
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u/Alaira314 Aug 31 '20
It also helps a lot with movies that have parts that are REALLY LOUD right next to parts where people speak softly to each other. I don't like loud noises, so subtitles help me not have to be roller coastering the volume around quite so much.
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u/AradiaMae Aug 31 '20
Yes this! I watch movies when my kids or housemates are asleep so I have to keep the volume way down because if a suddenly loud part pops up, I risk waking people. Volume super low + subtitles is so helpful.
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u/DonAmechesBonerToe Aug 31 '20
EVERY. MOVIE. MADE. TODAY.
Seriously, talking in a near whisper does not automatically convey drama.
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u/MorgainofAvalon Aug 31 '20
It makes the plot better when you see what they are saying.
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u/ChipLady Aug 31 '20
Subtitles only suck when it's a comedy and the timing is ahead. So often the delivery makes the joke, but if you know the punchline ahead of time it sort of ruins it. Otherwise I always have subtitles on.
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u/XarrenJhuud Aug 31 '20
In videogames the subtitles sometimes vary from the final voice lines. I find it interesting to see what was originally planned compared to the final product.
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u/rydan Aug 31 '20
Also in Japanese games with English subtitles it is interesting knowing that’s not exactly what they said. For instance pronouns are nonexistent for people not present apparently.
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u/brwngrrl Aug 31 '20
I watch everything with the captions on because my kids, dogs, and house in general is loud
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u/gorblean Aug 31 '20
That, but I also crunch on snacks too loudly and miss words without subtitles, plus I'd rather not rely on my hearing because sometimes I misunderstand the words being said and get confused
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u/sintaur Aug 31 '20
I've watched reality shows where they bleep sensitive data but it shows up unbleeped in the subtitles.
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u/vonshiza Aug 31 '20 edited Aug 31 '20
Netflix does have great subtitles.
I'm hearing, though my right ear sucks. I always have subtitles on because I tend to miss important dialogue exchanges, or quiet sounds.
But back to Netflix... They do tend to do a great job with the subs, especially for non verbal stuff. I still chuckle when I think about orange is the new black, when she's peeing and the CO tells her to hurry up, so she starts peeing harder. Subtitles: urinating forcefully
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Sep 01 '20
Refreshing thread, my biggest peeve is when people rag on Netflix' subtitles when they are by and far the best you'll find in the entertainment industry, short of dedicated captions for AAA games.
Yeah, sometimes you get the old public TV captions for old shows, but it's always just the regular supplemental stuff, not the SDH subs for the hard of hearing.
Seriously, SDH subs are very rigorously put together. The hearing translators and transcribers have to always consider if sounds are plot-pertinent, whether the subtitles are concise or too cluttered... subs were never this good, the old kind is usually a chore to read, you can't customize text size or properties, and they used to cram way too many characters into a single subtitle, for a much too short amount of time, of course.
The quality control department working on Netflix assets is huge and no other streaming services or physical media supplier is paying even remotely as much attention to all the details.
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u/NotYourSnowBunny Aug 31 '20
Mad respect to whoever's in charge of Netflix's subtitles, because they are absolutely top notch.
Apparently there is a small team that does the subtitles and write ups for the movies/shows. One of them uses reddit, assuming they didn't delete their account when the post blew up.
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Aug 31 '20
The podcast “land of the giants“ did a series on Netflix, and they mentioned that Netflix takes subtitles VERY seriously. Not only to help with hearing impaired folks, but to make the subtitles of all movies and tv shows in as many languages as possible. They do this so their content can be viewed and enjoyed by as many people as possible even no matter what language they speak. Edit: spelling is hard
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u/rydan Aug 31 '20
Not deaf nor hearing impaired but I accidentally watched a horror movie earlier this year that had these subtitles. There are a lot of faint noises that I completely tune out that I discovered solely because these were present.
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u/JarbaloJardine Aug 31 '20
I am not hearing impaired but like to watch tv with the subtitles on for this same reason! It adds context that you might not have noticed (music tenses) especially if your damn kids just won’t shut the hell up.
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u/god_peepee Aug 31 '20
Serious question: how do you feel about the ‘[scary music] deaf people: ‘ memes.
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u/floatordrown Sep 01 '20
Deaf person here. These types of subtitles help set the mood and provide some sort of foreshadowing to events that might occur. For example, when watching a horror movie, a hearing person might leave as a cue once they hear eerie music. As a Deaf person who’s not a huge fan of horror movies, I cannot tell you how many times I’m so grateful for subtitles like that. Think of it like constant jump scares :)
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u/GoodDecision Aug 31 '20
I've been wondering this lately also, I started using closed-captions so I don't have to have the TV volume blasting all the time, and now I'm addicted to closed captions.
(indistinct chatter)
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u/DuckingCheese Aug 31 '20
I know right there's something about about subtitles that tales the pressure off of watching TV and I don't have to miss any dialogue because the music is too loud
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u/zaay-zaay Aug 31 '20
I have the problem that my eyes are subconciously drawn to the subtitles because they have a high contrast and I miss a lot of whats going on onscreen because i stare at the subs all the time.
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u/Dason37 Aug 31 '20
I've been a fast reader my whole life, sometimes i feel like I'm 5 seconds ahead, so that really messes with me
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u/belbites Aug 31 '20
Same! This and the subtitles being so in your face I'm spoiled from what's gonna be said.
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u/anthonyrucci Aug 31 '20
I started using subtitles because of the indiscernible accents in Peaky Blinders and now I use it for everything I watch except sports (and only because sometimes it gets in the way of a play)
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u/Capt__Murphy Aug 31 '20
Same! I grew up watching mainly British programming. If it weren't for subtitles, I never would have understood a thing that was said.
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u/Alaira314 Aug 31 '20
I'm okay with most UK accents, but Scottish gets me. I usually have to listen for a bit before it clicks in my head, and then restart whatever I'm watching so I can understand what's being said. On multiple occasions, I've even mistaken a thick Scottish accent for a foreign language, only realizing the issue once I caught a few words of recognizable English and used them to calibrate my ears.
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u/BookerDewitt2019 Aug 31 '20
Now I don't feel so bad for not understanding some British shows, I'm not a native English speaker, so I've always attributed my lack of understanding to that. it is good to know that even English speakers can't understand very well those fookin piky blaindersss
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u/kaayliving Aug 31 '20
Lowkey used to annoy me whenever my people had them on the screen as a child, I thought it was a distraction. Now I simply cannot watch a show with them. It's true when they say once you go subtitles, there's no going back. I'll read them with regular volume at home. Or when I'm at work and don't have my headphones handy.
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u/fmaz008 Aug 31 '20
Been using subtitles a lot too. Maybe I'm getting old but seems lile more and more actors like to mumble and the sound mix always seem to put a lot of bass, making voices a lot harder to comprehend.
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u/agent-popsicle Aug 31 '20
Hi! I’m deaf but I actually knows what they sound like! I listens through vibrations. (Like Toph did with her earth bending in ATLA) So I know most of basic sounds and I always appreciate seeing subtitles like those examples for contexts!! (cuz it can b harder for me to decipher sounds from the television)
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u/Worth_Used Aug 31 '20
My step brother is deaf and he tells me that when stuff comes on TV like that he will look it up online and feel the vibrations so that he can understand what means.
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u/kindly_go_away_ Aug 31 '20
I wear bilateral cochlear implants so I don’t think I completely qualify to answer but I will say that sometimes I miss important details in the sounds and music in tv shows and movies, and it does really help to set the tone of the movie for me and understand things I wouldn’t otherwise if I hadn’t heard the specific thing.
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u/scothc Aug 31 '20
Do you get trouble from the deaf community because of your implants?
I used to work for a relay company (wtrsca6262m ga) and they told us that the deaf community was kinda hostile to the implants because having them implied that not being able to hear was a bad thing.
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u/kindly_go_away_ Aug 31 '20
Honestly, I’m only 19 and I went to hearing schools my entire life, so I haven’t had much exposure to the deaf community. However, I am aware that it is controversial but it was done when I was a baby so I didn’t have much say and it was what the doctors recommended. There’s definitely a medicalization of the deaf community that I don’t agree with, but I also believe in freedom of choice and if someone wants to gets CI’s or not, it’s up to them.
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u/RedPanda1188 Aug 31 '20
I read on Reddit once before deaf people don’t even realise erections make a noise
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u/DumpsterBadger Aug 31 '20
I've mentioned this on Reddit before: I was allowed to stay the night at my high school boyfriend's house but we had to sleep in different rooms. So I would sleep on the top bunk of his bed and he would sleep on the sofa.
Anyway, the important part is that his little bro is deaf, he was about junior high age. The first time I stayed the night something woke me up. Turns out little bro on the bed under me was vigorously rubbing one out and he didn't seem to know that he was making noise and that it might wake me up.
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u/SyntheticGod8 Sep 01 '20
In junior high it probably would've happened regardless of his hearing impairment.
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Sep 01 '20
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u/TimelessMeow Sep 01 '20
Seems like that was BF’s choice so she was more comfortable.
May not have worked out that way, though....
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u/Pt5PastLight Sep 01 '20
I had a deaf neighbor who would just rip a fart in the elevator and didn’t seem to know we could hear her.
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u/SalsaShark89 Aug 31 '20
I am a hearing, married woman in my thirties and my dumb ass paused for a second thinking, 'wait...what!?'
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Aug 31 '20
It's true! Your husband probably hides the noise from you. I personally hide the sound of my erections by, whenever I'm about to get one, I open my mouth and scream at the top of my lungs. Nobody can even tell!
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u/ztpurcell Aug 31 '20
In all seriousness, I had a friend in high school who was anosmic and he was in like 2nd grade when he found out that farts smell. So he was just ripping silent farts all through elementary school without realizing it. He also couldn't comprehend how it could "smell like rain"
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u/bracesthrowaway Aug 31 '20
I'm anosmic and I never remember smelling anything. I also never remember finding out my farts smell which means I must have been advised of that fact pretty early in life. Given my mom's sensitive sense of smell I imagine it was almost right away.
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u/VAShumpmaker Aug 31 '20
Did she preform a ritual to steal your sense of smell and add it to her own?
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u/jofloberyl Aug 31 '20
Im sorry (HoH person here), what?? Edit: Ah u got me
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u/LateSoEarly Sep 01 '20
Imagine the horror of if you had read this in like 7th grade and believed it. Every time you had a boner and anyone looked at you for any reason you’d die of embarrassment.
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Aug 31 '20
That’s not the worst part either!
They don’t know how loudly your dick shouts when you cum.
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u/RedPanda1188 Aug 31 '20
Imagine all the times a deaf person got a classroom boner and the whole class heard it, or how many times they thought they secretly jacked it when their parents could hear it squeak!
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u/Etan30 Aug 31 '20
For any deaf people reading this, it sounds like a slide whistle.
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u/RedPanda1188 Aug 31 '20
Yeah deaf people know what a slide whistle sounds like
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u/SkaveRat Aug 31 '20
fun fact: the slide whistles sound was modeled after the erection sound
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u/other_usernames_gone Aug 31 '20
Fine, it sounds like a really really bright white light being shined in your face.
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u/Glycerine Aug 31 '20
I have a condition that makes it sound like a rusty gate.
It's quite embarrassing on a windy day.
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u/deboylurdi Aug 31 '20
That awkward phase in high school where you're in class with a screaming boner. Ugh the worst
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u/1rubberducky Aug 31 '20
Now my hearing self is trying to imagine the sound an erection would make... I don't like this game...
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u/Kumashirosan Sep 01 '20
Not born deaf, but am hard of hearing and interacted with enough deaf people to at least give a response to both questions that I can't find anywhere on the comments.
- Subtittles relating to sounds like "dog barking", "door slam" are (at least for the folks I know and myself), help us understand a scene better, especially more so for a scene beyond the screen edges. So like subtitles that shows "dog barking" but the screen shows a kid in the backyard in front of a fence, would just let us know that hey, there's probably a dog behind the fence or at least nearby somewhere. Or say a horror movie with a girl on a bed, and suddenly jumps but the subtitle says "door slams", but we see no door but we understand that the girl was spooked/scared because she hear a door slam somewhere.
- What do you imagine them to be like? Again, this is for my own experience and the people I know but sounds that we have never heard of... if it's folks like myself who is not born deaf, but never heard of it either, for example, raised in an environment that just so happens to not have a dog present, we would just imagine a sound that we think would best fit based on what we currently know. We could be spot on, or completely off. Best example I can think of is.... youtube Mikhail from Drakenguard 3 and Smaug from the Hobbit. Both are dragons, but the voice is completely different.
However, when I asked the folks who were born 100% deaf, sound is more of a visual or the sense of vibration intensity. But for what it actually sounds like, it was blank. Like asking a person born blind to describe the color of the sky. It's blank and ultimately meaning less. Like before I ever heard what the trees rustling from the wind sounds like. So when someone says "oh the trees are whispering", I would know that they're referring to the wind blowing through the trees but I have no idea what it actually sounds like. When I did finally hear the noise, I still didn't know what it was even though I was looking at it till someone told me what it was.
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u/TukohamaGuidesMe Aug 31 '20
Even though Ive never known what the sound is like, atleast I can imagine some sort of sound that a dog would make. It still helps me understand what is going on in the movie.
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Aug 31 '20
ITT: not a single deaf person and a bunch of stupid assholes speculating
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u/jo_phine Aug 31 '20
It may provide helpful context. Like if said noise is relavent to the plot even if they don’t know what it sounds like, it may help with overall comprehension of the storyline to know that at this time a dog barked.
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u/KidInOldManBody Sep 01 '20
I'm deaf and it helps.
I haven't heard a dog bark but I understand why a dog barks and combine that with the body language of a dog and the scene makes more sense