Evaluating the Effectiveness of Subtitling for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing Based on Analysis of Moroccan University Students' Translations from English into Arabic

With the growing need for accessible audiovisual content, Subtitling for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing (SDH) has become an important type of audiovisual translation. Although a considerable amount of research has been conducted on SDH in different parts of the world, few empirical studies have focused on the pedagogical training of future audiovisual translators in the Arabic-speaking countries. This study investigates the effectiveness of SDH training for Moroccan students at the university level by analyzing the quality of English-to-Arabic subtitling and identifying the linguistic and technical difficulties faced in the translation process. This study adopted a mixed-methods design to analyze twenty-eight SDH projects produced by undergraduate and master’s students from three Moroccan universities. Translations were evaluated using Matamala's framework of audiovisual competence of translators across nine quality dimensions; quantitative data were analyzed by descriptive statistics and one-way ANOVA. The problems of translation of idiomatic expressions, acoustic information, segmentation of the subtitles, timing, and cultural adaptation were identified through qualitative analysis. The findings indicate that overall students' quality of subtitles improves as they advance in their studies, with the master’s students in their final year of study scoring better than the undergraduate students, especially in the representation of information from non-verbal acoustic sources and in the production of better subtitles. However, there were some difficulties in the translation of idiomatic language, the preservation of sound effects, identification of the speaker, and adherence to subtitle segmentation and synchronization rules. These findings emphasize the importance of adopting explicit teaching methods in SDH conventions, the evaluation of subtitle quality and practical training in audiovisual accessibility for strengthening accessibility-related translator education. The study contributes to the existing body of research on SDH pedagogy in the Arab world and offers evidence-based ideas for improving the curricula of AVT in Moroccan higher education.