Regulated media accessibility began in Turkey with the enactment of the Directive by the media regulator RTÜK in October of 2019. This development brings on legitimate concerns about the need for advanced research, especially in the yet to be initiated non-verbatim and/or partially live subtitling mode.

Research about live subtitling scenarios must be approached from several perspectives. Initially, research on reception studies are imperative. Secondly, Turkey must learn from the experiences of others and research is necessary to develop “a country specific” road map. Thirdly, as the development of speech recognition programs in Turkish continues, training in respeaking is essential to meet the need once the infrastructure is sufficient.

The main focus of this initial research in Turkey will be to study the respeaker profile for non-verbatim and/or partially non-verbatim live subtitling and skills set of respeakers; and subsequently to develop a training program for the Turkish setting to ensure accessibility to live broadcasts.

The aim of the presentation will be to provide background on the initiation of live subtitling in the Turkish setting which is quite different from the European setting and to map out the steps to be taken to ensure high quality products for the practice from the start.