Paradoxical Media Accessibility in Cantonese Audio Description: A Case Study of Zero to Hero (媽媽的神奇小子)

Audio description (AD) converts visual elements into oral form to allow people with visual impairment to access audio-visual texts. Although AD is an accessibility tool for people with disability, the language used in AD sometimes carries ableist implications, specifically language that deems disability a deviation from the “norm.” Ableist language is found in the AD of the Hong Kong feature movie Zero to Hero (媽媽的神奇小子), which narrates the story of the Hong Kong Paralympian So Wa Wai. In the movie’s AD, identity-first language that highlights disability over humanity is used, possibly because of the limited silent time available for AD in the original films. In addition, language that portrays disabilities as defects and language of charity, which stresses how people with disabilities rely on assistance from others, are featured in the Cantonese AD. It describes a Paralympian as often being “helped” by his mother and coach, possibly because Cantonese tends to overuse the Chinese character “幫 (to help)”.

The ableist language in the AD is perhaps unintentional, given that the AD of films produced in Hong Kong is often outsourced to a third party that has no access to the filmmaking process. Thus, AD content is largely restricted by a film’s plot. As the Hong Kong media often use ableist language to describe Paralympians, by, for example, foregrounding their disabilities over their athlete identity, describing their disabilities as a defect or tragedy, and emphasizing the “help” they have received over their success, the use of ableist language in AD is not surprising. However, it is ironic that ableist language is included in accessibility tools such as AD. To ensure that media access in Hong Kong is inclusive and equitable, this study suggests ways to avoid ableism in Cantonese AD by describing the environment or taking other perspectives. The language of charity can be avoided by not spelling out the Chinese character “幫” (to help) or by portraying “helping as “accompanying”. Discriminatory language is found in both human-generated and artificial intelligence (AI) generated AD. Although AI-generated AD is not yet widely used, experimental AI-generated AD carries arguably sexist, racist, and ableist implications. The solutions found in this study may help to avoid such issues in AI-generated AD and stop the perpetuation of discrimination against people with disabilities.

(This project is partially supported by the GRF project CityU #11609621 and the project #9229103.)