The number of deaf or hard of hearing people in France is estimated to be around 6 million, making a film accessible to them through subtitling is much simpler technically than doing so for live broadcasts. France Televisions’ teams have tackled this problem and have developed an automatic subtitling solution based on AI for all programs on the franceinfo channel, on DTT channel 27. This new tool is still under development but is proposed in experimental form on the France.tv Lab platform.

On August 24, 2016, Francetv info, modernized, became franceinfo, a global public service information offer. Edited by France Télévisions, Radio France, France 24 and INA, this offer includes a continuous TV channel, a radio, a website and a mobile application. The latter two broadcast the continuous TV channel franceinfo, its videos, the newscasts of France 2 and France 3 as well as the reports and magazines of the editorial staff of France Télévisions. It can also be found in an adapted format on social networks.

The France Télévisions group, to promote the inclusion of deaf or hard of hearing people, is working on various projects such as subtitling, audio description, translation into sign language, voice accessibility….

For example, franceinfo offers a dozen subtitled newscasts and two of its editions are translated into sign language. This automatic subtitling service would enable it to become the first all-news channel to be 100% accessible to the deaf and hard-of-hearing.

While this project is under development, an experiment, developed with the National Consultative Commission for the Disabled (CNCPH), has been launched on the France.tv Lab platform. Internet users will be able to test this new subtitling solution and contribute to its improvement by answering a questionnaire.

This experimentation is open to all, 7 days a week and 24 hours a day, until June 19.

Translated from Franceinfo invite à tester et évaluer sa solution de sous-titrage automatique