Canal Innovates With Subtitles Adapted For Dyslexic People

Apr. 25, 2023

Let's be real: TV shows and films are captivating the whole world and immerse us into their unique universe and keep building contemporary pop culture. And it is unmissable that foreign content is becoming more and more popular, whether it is American, British, Spanish, Korean or Japanese.

To take in all the emotions that this type of entertainment has to offer, watching them in their original language is key. The emotion lifts the viewers mostly through the performance of the actors with their voices and catchy lines. Which is missed when the content is dubbed. That is why most viewers chose to watch their favorite films and series with subtitles.

However this becomes a real issue for dyslexic people, as they struggle to read, and need extra time to decipher each word to understand the meaning of the phrase and thus don't always have the time to read the subtitles during a scene before they disappear.

Dyslexic people are at a disadvantage and are deprived of foreign material with subtitles and have to settle for dubbed content (and miss some of the jokes and idioms). Sometimes, it means that they are not able at all to enjoy a show or a film not available in a dubbed format. Or sometimes, they have to wait several months before finally discovering the hit series that everyone has been raving about. Or even worse, dyslexic people often try to watch a program with subtitles like everybody else, albeit with little success.

CANAL+, working closely with ad agency BETC Paris and NGO Puissance Dys (created in 1992 by Beatrice Sauvegeot and Dr. Jean Metellus with the ambition of helping dyslexic people) has come up with a solution for all these people - 8 to 12% of the world's population - and is introducing DYSTITLES: subtitles adapted for reading for dyslexic and non-dyslexic people.

Beatrice Sauveagot, speech therapist and neuropsychologist, President of Puissance Dys, has spent the last ten years developing a font adapted for dyslexic people. Based on this initial research, BETC and Puissance Dys created a new font that can be read by everyone. Specifically created for reading subtitles, the unique design of these characters play with depth and forms to allow dyslexic people to read without having to decipher words letter by letter and is totally readable by non-dyslexic people after a small adaptation time.

Beatrice Sauvegeaot, said:

"I have been working with dyslexic people for ten years. I created this font to help them understand subtitles thanks to a design that mimics the way that their brain perceives letters. I am delighted to partner with CANAL+ to adapt it for subtitles for TV and series."

 

With this world premiere innovation, CANAL+ is expanding its mission of bringing entertainment to everyone and bringing viewers together by bridging the gap that exists between dyslexic and non-dyslexic in terms of original content. With Dysttitles, CANAL+ is committed to raising awareness and supporting inclusiveness for everyone. Because dyslexia shouldn't be an obstacle. 

Dystitles will soon be available on the myCANAL platform as an option in the Audio settings for languages and subtitles. CANAL+ will include Dystitles to its entire catalog on all devices and several languages.