PNN
Mumbai (Maharashtra) [India], June 21: The Mumbai International Film Festival (MIFF) 2024 presents accessible audiovisual media for the deaf and hard of hearing (DHH) and the visually impaired. Various animated shorts are screened with accessibility features such as Same Language Subtitles (SLS), Indian Sign Language (ISL) and Audio Description (AD).
However, it would be a mistake to think that accessibility is limited to people with hearing and visual disabilities. PlanetRead's Billion Readers Initiative (BIRD), associated with IIT-Delhi and Toonz Media, one of India's leading animation companies based in Trivandrum, have partnered to demonstrate that SLS in the cartoons that children watch with Passion across India has the power to improve children's reading skills. to scale.
"Children's brains are extremely adept at matching sound and text in the 'same' language, said Brij Kothari, an associate professor at IIT-Delhi's School of Public Policy who heads BIRD. "SLS in cartoons they watch from It will still give them automatic reading practice. "There is strong evidence that their reading and language ability can only improve as a result."
At MIFF, the animation show 'Jay Jagannath' created by ELE Animations and Toonz and airing on Pogo TV is presented with SLS and AD in support of media accessibility, literacy and promotion of the Indian language for all spectators.
According to the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (RPwD) Act 2016 and the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting (MIB) Television Accessibility Rules 2019, media accessibility is stipulated in half of all television content. entertainment on television by 2025.
Toonz CEO P. Jayakumar said, "It's not just about compliance. We see in SLS the potential to leverage our large library of quality animation for healthy entertainment and education of children in all Indian languages." .
The 200 million Indian primary school children who passionately watch cartoons in their language(s) may soon find their reading skills improving without even realizing it.
About Toonz Media Group
Toonz is a 360-degree media powerhouse with over two decades of unparalleled experience and one of the busiest animation production studios in the world (over 10,000 minutes of 2D and CGI kids and family content per year). Toonz has several animated and live-action series under its belt, as well as feature films including Wolverine and the X-Men with Marvel, Speed Racer: The Next Generation with Lionsgate, Mostly Ghostly with Universal, Gummy Bear and Friends, and more . Toonz has also ventured into emerging technologies such as AR, VR and Gaming.
www.toonz.co
About one billion readers (BIRD)
The Billion Readers Initiative (BIRD), led by PlanetRead and associated with IIT-Delhi, aims to ensure daily and lifelong reading practice for one billion people in India. This goal is being achieved by adding Same Language Subtitling (SLS) in mainstream entertainment content on television, movies and streaming platforms to fulfill a vision: Every Indian, a fluent reader.
SLS is the idea of subtitling audiovisual (AV) content in the "same" language as the audio. With SLS, viewers can read what they see and hear on the screen in all popular entertainment programs. BIRD is a systems change initiative supported by Co-Impact, which aims to integrate SLS into all entertainment video content, across all Indian languages, for literacy, language learning and media access.
www.billionreaders.org
Contact: Parthibhan Amudhan [email protected]
Mumbai (Maharashtra) [India], June 21: The Mumbai International Film Festival (MIFF) 2024 presents accessible audiovisual media for the deaf and hard of hearing (DHH) and the visually impaired. Various animated shorts are screened with accessibility features such as Same Language Subtitles (SLS), Indian Sign Language (ISL) and Audio Description (AD).
However, it would be a mistake to think that accessibility is limited to people with hearing and visual disabilities. PlanetRead's Billion Readers Initiative (BIRD), associated with IIT-Delhi and Toonz Media, one of India's leading animation companies based in Trivandrum, have partnered to demonstrate that SLS in the cartoons that children watch with Passion across India has the power to improve children's reading skills. to scale.
"Children's brains are extremely adept at matching sound and text in the 'same' language, said Brij Kothari, an associate professor at IIT-Delhi's School of Public Policy who heads BIRD. "SLS in cartoons they watch from It will still give them automatic reading practice. "There is strong evidence that their reading and language ability can only improve as a result."
At MIFF, the animation show 'Jay Jagannath' created by ELE Animations and Toonz and airing on Pogo TV is presented with SLS and AD in support of media accessibility, literacy and promotion of the Indian language for all spectators.
According to the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (RPwD) Act 2016 and the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting (MIB) Television Accessibility Rules 2019, media accessibility is stipulated in half of all television content. entertainment on television by 2025.
Toonz CEO P. Jayakumar said, "It's not just about compliance. We see in SLS the potential to leverage our large library of quality animation for healthy entertainment and education of children in all Indian languages." .
The 200 million Indian primary school children who passionately watch cartoons in their language(s) may soon find their reading skills improving without even realizing it.
About Toonz Media Group
Toonz is a 360-degree media powerhouse with over two decades of unparalleled experience and one of the busiest animation production studios in the world (over 10,000 minutes of 2D and CGI kids and family content per year). Toonz has several animated and live-action series under its belt, as well as feature films including Wolverine and the X-Men with Marvel, Speed Racer: The Next Generation with Lionsgate, Mostly Ghostly with Universal, Gummy Bear and Friends, and more . Toonz has also ventured into emerging technologies such as AR, VR and Gaming.
www.toonz.co
About one billion readers (BIRD)
The Billion Readers Initiative (BIRD), led by PlanetRead and associated with IIT-Delhi, aims to ensure daily and lifelong reading practice for one billion people in India. This goal is being achieved by adding Same Language Subtitling (SLS) in mainstream entertainment content on television, movies and streaming platforms to fulfill a vision: Every Indian, a fluent reader.
SLS is the idea of subtitling audiovisual (AV) content in the "same" language as the audio. With SLS, viewers can read what they see and hear on the screen in all popular entertainment programs. BIRD is a systems change initiative supported by Co-Impact, which aims to integrate SLS into all entertainment video content, across all Indian languages, for literacy, language learning and media access.
www.billionreaders.org
Contact: Parthibhan Amudhan [email protected]
