Trans. Revista de Traductología 11. Málaga, Publicaciones de la Universidad de Málaga, 2007, 329 p.

The eleventh issue of Trans, a journal published since 1997 by the Department of Translation and Interpreting at the University of Málaga (Spain), features five sections: “Dossier” (Dossier), “Artículos” (Articles), “Notas” (Notes), “Artículos bibliográficos” (Bibliographic Articles), and “Reseñas” (Reviews). The first section, on which this review is focused, is titled “La accesibilidad en los medios: una aproximación multidisciplinar” (Media Accessibility: A Multidisciplinary Approach) and has been edited by Pilar Orero (Autonomous University of Barcelona). One of the latest buzzwords in translation scholarship, “accessibility” is generally associated with the services provided for handicapped communities. However, in line with the new directions of translation as a cluster concept defended by scholars such as Maria Tymoczko (2007), the ten contributions collected in this section problematize the classification of audiovisual accessibility with the mere suppression of hearing and visual barriers, and instead enlarge the definition of translation by incorporating further barriers to mobility, communication, manipulation, and knowledge. In “Visión histórica de la accesibilidad en los medios en España” (Historic Review of Accessibility in the Spanish Media), Pilar Orero, Ana María Pereira and Francisco Utray trace the history of audio description (AD) and subtitling in Spain. Although a pioneering country in the implementation of AD ever since the end of the Civil War in 1939, it was not until 1993 that the Spanish National Organization for the Blind (ONCE) began to develop a system of AD for the blind community (Audesc). In the case of subtitling, the pervasiveness of dubbing practices in Spain has affected hearing accessibility in more than one way: even after the demands of the deaf community started to be taken into consideration around 1990, the minority status of subtitling—produced mainly for language learners who wished to have access to the original soundtrack—and the expensive cost of filmmaking have left subtitle users with a single track for all audiences. In Portugal, the situation turns out to be even more problematic. Although traditionally a subtitling country, the needs of the deaf community were not met until 1999, when on-demand access to television subtitles was put into operation through a system of closed captioning (Teletext). Yet, as Josélia Neves and Lourdes Lorenzo argue in “La subtitulación para s/ Sordos, panorama global y prenormativo en el marco ibérico” (Subtitling for the Deaf and the Hard-of-Hearing: Global and Prenormative View within the Iberian Framework), despite initial efforts to introduce them, subtitles have failed to hold sway in Portuguese national television because of the lack of commitment to the preferences of the deaf audience on the part of programmers and the low quality of the service. Is media accessibility, then, merely a question of improving the quality of audiovisual services? Two of the most thought-provoking articles provide insights in this respect. In “Construcción jurídica del derecho a una televisión accesible” (Legal Grounds for the Right to an Accessible Television), José Gabriel Storch de Gracia y Asensio appeals to the general and/ or universal scope of fundamental rights, particularly those that are exerted through language, to remind readers that the right of free speech also comprises the right to receive information, which is flouted whenever the corresponding instruments are not made accessible. Instead of measures of social inclusion (with its implicit rhetoric of “normal” and “handicapped” populations), the author approaches the information rights granted by the Spanish Constitution as means of social, cultural and educational policy seeking to eliminate the barriers that block and, furthermore, limit communication. Storch de Gracia y Asensio’s argument applies to what Fernando Alonso terms “the legal-normative reasons” (22, 23) to address the scope of accessibility as universal. In …