Belgravia Foundation uses closed captioning software to engage with culturally and linguistically diverse communities
Recently Belgravia Foundation, Belgravia Leisure and BK Kids Gymnastics were successful in their partner grant application responding to the health and social challenges faced by the community during COVID-19 lockdowns in the Hume City region. People with a disability, people of cultural and linguistic diversity and older adults were determined as the focus of the project, as these groups have been shown by research to most often miss out on participation in sport, exercise, leisure and recreation. Please read about the full story here.
One component within the successful grant was the purchase of software that translates spoken language into written language, known as Trint. The intention behind Belgravia Foundation purchasing the Trint license is to add captions in languages other than English to workout and gymnastics videos already developed to support people during the pandemic through Belgravia’s online health and wellbeing platform, Home Fitness Network. Trint is an important tool built into this grant application because Hume City Council reports over 153 languages are spoken in the municipality, which is incredibly diverse and indicates the varying needs and priorities of the community.
To support the captioning project, Belgravia Foundation sought expertise from Belgravia Leisure team member, Vanessa Laino. Vanessa, Assistant Centre Manager at Ascot Vale Leisure Centre, has wonderful ‘tech’ skills and is passionate about using technology to support connection to the community. She is also a champion of inclusion. Vanessa says “language is a significant barrier for many people to participate in leisure and recreation services and programs, and we have identified that Hume City Council is one of the most diverse regions in Victoria, and would benefit from services offered in options other than English. Trint now gives us the opportunity to broaden our ability to welcome, support and include all, especially during the COVID-19 lockdown.”
Vanessa continues “Trint is a fantastic program which is very user-friendly and efficient. Being able to transcribe a whole video no matter the length in a matter of minutes. Not only can it transcribe in English, but it provides the opportunity to translate the transcript into a number of languages making the program perfect for creating more inclusive and accessible options. The program is compatible with most of the social media platforms, allowing for us to begin sharing content that is understood by a much broader community.”
After trailing Trint and its capabilities on this relatively small scale, it is proposed Belgravia Foundation will expand the software use based on the outcomes of the Hume City grant. Belgravia Foundation would like to see this approach ingrained into the leisure industry’s communication and online presence moving forward.
