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These guidelines differ from the Mayday guidelines. Please see this section for an explanation of the main differences.
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Note: many examples in this guide may be in English. Please be sure to use your language’s equivalent atmospherics and speaker label naming. Ask an admin for help if you’re not sure.
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SDH stands for “Subtitles for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing”. SDH captioning or SDH subtitling is a more inclusive form of regular subtitling where aside from displaying the speech, the subtitles also provide information about anything else that you might hear but that a d/Deaf person or person who is hard of hearing would not.
Think of (bees buzzing), (speaks in foreign language), (door closing), and so on, but also think of audio cues that the video does not give with regards to speaker identification. Think of (Otis laughing) or Maria: “…”
These guidelines contain essential SDH formatting elements as well as general subtitle requirements.
You’ll be given the scripts of the content you are to subtitle, and you’ll claim any files through the platform as per usual.
Your task is:
Correcting the AI captions of your files and make sure all the subtitles matches whatever your scripts say. If any sentences are missing from the scripts but are heard in the audio, DO add those sentences to your subtitles.
Ensuring proper subtitle formatting by applying correct synchronisation, line breaks, a healthy amount of characters per line (CPL), a pyramid distribution where possible and a healthy characters per second (CPS) amount. This is the standard subtitle order of priority.
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For voice over or dubbed content, all synchronisation should follow the onset of the voice over, not the onset of the person whose speech is being translated.
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Ensuring that your subtitles comply with shot changes and frame gaps while editing the capsules. These will be auto-enforced: do not switch this off without flagging this to an admin.
Additionally, you should make these SDH compliant by:
Including atmospherics for key sounds and instrumental music heard throughout. Examples include:
| 1 | (bomb exploding) |
|---|---|
| 2 | (people shouting) |
| 3 | (doorbell ringing) |
| 4 | (ominous music) |
See the section below for formatting instructions.
Including speaker labels every time there’s a change of speaker and the speakers’ mouth cannot be identified.
| 1 | Paul: Hey guys. |
|---|---|
| 2 | Flight attendant: |
| Ladies and gentlemen… |
Including lyrics to all sung songs using hashtags.
| 1 | # Billie Jean’s not my lover… # |
|---|
Please follow these special requirements from the customer.
⚠️ Start all captioning files with a BLANK CAPTION capsule marking the beginning of the video file.
| 1 | BLANK CAPTION |
|---|---|
| 2 | (Host name): Previously on Dateline. |
⚠️ Whenever your subtitles cover forced narrative (i.e. on-screen text), your subtitles should be raised to the top of the screen so that the on-screen text can be read.
Instead of using a hyphen for two speakers or sounds in one capsule, you should:
use a hyphen for every change of speaker:
| 1 | and you’re ready? -Yes, absolutely. | | --- | --- | | 2 | -Nice to meet you. My name is Alice. |
or every change in atmospheric.
That means if there’s a speaker and an atmospheric in one capsule, but the speaker was already talking, you only use the hyphen for the atmospheric, e.g.:
| 1 | and it could happen any minute. -(bomb exploding) | | --- | --- |
If the first line is a new speaker, you do use a hyphen for both.
| 1 | -No, I haven’t seen him. -(doorbell ringing) | | --- | --- |