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@Linguist_CIOL FEBRUARY/MARCH The Linguist 11 AWARDS FOCUS UEA students also work with Banana Link, a Norwich-based cooperative supporting fair and sustainable banana and pineapple trades. The charity raises awareness of the poor living and working conditions faced by plantation workers and small producers in Latin America, Africa and the Caribbean. Our students have translated their films into French and Spanish, and created English subtitles for Deaf and hard of hearing audiences. Our work with the Deaf community has grown since SAAM's inception, and we now have a number of projects with local museums. At the Wymondham Heritage Museum, a small site run entirely by volunteers, student subtitles enable Deaf visitors to engage with historical reenactments. Deaf attendees at the 2017 Gypsy, Roma and Traveller Education conference were able to access the film Travellers Times: The oldest show on the road via SAAM subtitles. Such work enables our AVT students to be part of both a local and a global scene, bringing a great sense of achievement. They can be proud that, through their volunteering, they are making a valuable contribution to society, whether through their translations or their interlingual and intralingual subtitles. Unique challenges When subtitling, students must overcome many hurdles, from the technical constraint of using a restricted number of characters (38 words per line) and the speed of the spoken word (160-180 words per minute), to the linguistic demands of translating culture- bound terms such as 'bank holiday' and 'afternoon tea'. The speed also varies according to the audience the subtitles are designed for, including Deaf viewers, foreign language users and children. Conveying the general meaning, cultural nuances and the subtleties of the language within these limits is very challenging. As with any form of translation, the subtitler needs to master both the language being translated and their first language, but they also have to learn how to handle the software specific to audiovisual work. Several SAAM graduates are now working within the industry, using their translating skills and the subtitling expertise gained from their course and volunteer work. We continue to grow and currently have 35 volunteers, from an initial group of six in 2016. We are also working with new organisations and now have students from the University of Alcalá in Spain collaborating with us. Being recognised by CIOL with a Special Commendation gave students a great sense of pride, and will act as a springboard for others to join the project. See saamproject.org for further details. As participant Bea Cornes remarked: "I really enjoyed the SAAM project as I was able to practise subtitling outside designated academic hours. As someone who is especially interested in a career in subtitling, this project provided me with invaluable experience, which hopefully I will be able to use in my future. I now am very comfortable with the subtitling software WinCaps, a skill which I can add to my CV." Charitable aims Supported by the UEA Alumni Fund, SAAM takes advantage of connections made through the Year Abroad programme, including links with charities in Latin America. Our work with SKIP (Supporting Kids in Peru), for example, involves translating and subtitling film clips designed to help children access education. In the USA, we subtitle an online toolkit for use by social workers in global charities and NGOs, aiding their understanding of child abuse in developing countries. According to project leader, Amy Travis: "SAAM has been instrumental in actualising Child Protection Toolkit's vision of preventing child abuse in international charities. Translation, subtitling and dubbing are very expensive services, especially for a still-forming charity. Yet these services are exactly what is needed to make CPT's training videos and resources useful to a larger audience and truly achieve the goal of preventing and stopping child abuse." SAAM will save the charity more than $15,000, she added. AT THE AWARDS Clockwise from left: Carlos de Pablos-Ortega (centre) with student volunteers Orla Condra and Daniel Cabeza-Campillo; CIOL Chief Executive Ann Carlisle introduces a video message from Patron Prince Michael; and attendees arrive at the event in central London