Expressive Captioning Symposium this Spring 2027

What is expressive captioning?
Expressive captioning is a creative accessibility approach that goes beyond traditional captions. It uses visual elements such as typography, color, animation, movement, and placement to convey dialogue, emotion, sound effects, and a scene's overall atmosphere.
For example, expressive captions might shake to communicate an explosion, change size to emphasize shouting, use different colors to identify speakers, or match caption colors to actors' clothing in a theatrical production. Captions might also follow signed dialogue rather than spoken language, or move across the screen to reflect a character's actions, emotions, or position within a scene.
These creative approaches show how captioning can go beyond providing access to dialogue and sound and become an integral part of visual storytelling and artistic expression.
The symposium will explore how artists, filmmakers, researchers, and accessibility professionals are experimenting with innovative captioning techniques to enhance storytelling and create more engaging and inclusive experiences for Deaf and hard-of-hearing audiences.

Interesting example of a Scottish Sign poem using kinetic typography https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ab-jagLmh-0

The stars are the map I unfurl: a poem about Gerry Hughes in BSL, Shetlandic and EnglishScottishPoetryLib YouTube