Audiovisual translation and assistive technology : towards a universal design approach for online education

Audiovisual Translation (AVT) and Assistive Technology (AST) are two fields that share common grounds within accessibility-related research, yet they are rarely studied in combination. The reason most often lies in the fact that they have emerged from different disciplines, i.e. Translation Studies and Computer Science, making a possible combined approach quite a demanding task due to their interdisciplinarity and the need for exploration of various parameters. Moreover, by focusing on certain needs and modes, several angles are added to the investigation. At the same time, due to their specific characteristics, the possibility of practical and applicable proposals towards the achievement of accessible education can be high. This paper aims to present some basic connections between the different disciplines involved in the ‘Accessible Online Education Research’, whose goal is to provide a theoretical framework for the joint investigation of AVT and AST-based approaches to accessible online education, and suggest possible implementations of the two disciplines for the creation of universal educational environments.