Team

Pablo Romero Fresco is a Senior Lecturer at Universidade de Vigo (Spain) and Honorary Professor of Translation and Filmmaking at the University of Roehampton (UK). He is the author of the books Subtitling through Speech Recognition (Routledge) and Accessible Filmmaking (Routledge). He is the leader of the international research group GALMA, for which he is currently coordinating several international projects on media accessibility. He has worked as a consultant for institutions and companies such as the European Parliament, Ofcom, Netflix or the Spanish Film Academy, with which he has set up a training course to introduce accessible filmmaking and access coordination in the Spanish film industry. Pablo is also a filmmaker. His first short documentary, Joining the Dots (2012), was used by film schools, universities and film festivals all over the world to raise awareness about audio description. His first feature-length documentary, Where Memory Ends (2022), premiered at the London Spanish Film Festival and the Seminci Festival (Spain) and its accessible version has been screened at special events in New York, London and Montreal. In 2024 he was accredited as a Full Professor by the ANECA (National Agency for Quality Assessment and Accreditation of Spain) and he was awarded a Lifetime Achievement Award by the international subtitlers’ association SUBTLE for his lifelong impact on the areas of audiovisual translation and media accessibility around the world.


  • Single-authored books
  • Edited books
    • Romero-Fresco, P. (Ed.). (2015). The Reception of Subtitles for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing in Europe. Peter Lang.
  • Journal articles
  • Chapters in edited books
    • Romero-Fresco, P. (forthcoming). Interpreting for Access: The Long Road to Recognition. A Tribute to Franz Pochhacker. Rodopi.
    • Romero-Fresco, P. (forthcoming). Audio Introductions. In Ch. Taylor & E. Perego (Eds.), The Routledge Handbook of Audio Description. Routledge.
    • Romero-Fresco, P. (2022). Subtitling. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.6370769.
    • Ledo Andión, M., Monteagudo Romero, H., & Romero Fresco, P. (2020). Patrimoine Culturel Audiovisuel. Pour un Programme Européen de Sous-titrages en Langues non Hégémoniques. In J. Guyot (Dir.), Cultures de résistence. Peuples et langues minorisés. Presses des Mines.
    • Romero-Fresco, P. (2020). Accessible Filmmaking and Media Accessibility. In M. Ji & S. Laviosa (Eds.), The Oxford Handbook of Translation and Social Practices (pp. 325-350). Oxford University Press.
    • Romero-Fresco, P. (2020). Accessible Filmmaking. In Ł. Bogucki & M. Deckert (Eds.), The Palgrave Handbook of Audiovisual Translation and Media Accessibility (pp. 545-566). Palgrave.
    • Romero-Fresco, P., & Eugeni, C. (2020). Live subtitling through respeaking. In Ł. Bogucki & M. Deckert (Eds.), The Palgrave Handbook of Audiovisual Translation and Media Accessibility (pp. 269-295). Palgrave.
    • Romero-Fresco, P. (2018). Reception studies in live and pre-recorded subtitles for the deaf and hard of hearing. In E. Di Giovanni & Y. Gambier (Eds.), Reception Studies and Audiovisual Translation (pp. 199-223). John Benjamins.
    • Romero-Fresco, P. (2018). Eye-tracking, Subtitling and Accessible Filmmaking. In T. Dwyer, C. Perkins, S. Redmond and J. Sita (Eds.), Seeing into Screens: Eye Tracking and the Moving Image (pp. 235-258). Bloomsbury.
    • Romero-Fresco, P. (2018). Respeaking: subtitling through speech recognition. In L. Pérez-González (Ed.), The Routledge Handbook of Audiovisual Translation Studies (pp. 96-113). Routledge. Summary available at
      http://luisperezgonzalez.org/publications/the-routledge-handbook-of-audiovisual-translation/chapter-7-respeaking-subtitling-through-speech-recognition-pablo-romero-fresco/.
    • Romero-Fresco, P. (2018). Accessible Filmmaking: Translation and Accessibility from Production. In L. Pérez-González (Ed.), The Routledge Handbook of Audiovisual Translation Studies (pp. 498-515). Routledge. Summary available at http://luisperezgonzalez.org/publications/the-routledge-handbook-of-audiovisual-translation/chapter-31-accessible-filmmaking-translation-and-accessibility-from-production-pablo-romero-fresco/.
    • Alonso Bacigalupe, L., & Romero-Fresco, P. (2018). La llegada: el procesamiento del lenguaje y la comunicación a examen. In X. Montero Domínguez (Ed.), Intérpretes de cine (pp. 183-201). Peter Lang.
    • Romero-Fresco, P. (2020). Subtitling for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing. In M. Baker & G. Saldanha (Eds.), The Routledge Encyclopedia of Translation Studies (Third edition) (pp. 549-554). Routledge.
    • Di Giovanni, E., & Romero-Fresco, P. (2018). Are we all together across languages? An eye tracking study of original and dubbed films. In I. Ranzato & Serenella Zanotti (Eds.), Reassessing Dubbing: The past is present (pp. 126-144). John Benjamins.
    • Romero-Fresco, P., & Martínez, J. (2015). Accuracy Rate in Live Subtitling: The NER Model. In J. Díaz-Cintas & R. Baños Piñero (Eds.), Audiovisual Translation in a Global Context. Mapping an Ever-changing Landscape (pp. 28-50). Palgrave.
    • Romero-Fresco, P. (2015). Respeaking as a bridge between subtitling and interpreting. In F. Pochhacker (Ed.), Routledge Encyclopedia of Interpreting Studies (p. 350). Routledge.
    • Romero-Fresco, P. (2015). Introduction. In P. Romero-Fresco (Ed.), The Reception of Subtitles for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing in Europe (pp. 8-15). Peter Lang.
    • Romero-Fresco, P. (2015). Long Questionnaire in the UK. In P. Romero-Fresco (Ed.), The Reception of Subtitles for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing in Europe (pp. 116-162). Peter Lang.
    • Romero-Fresco, P. (2015). Viewing speed in subtitling. In P. Romero-Fresco (Ed.), The Reception of Subtitles for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing in Europe (pp. 335-343). Peter Lang.
    • Romero-Fresco, P. (2015). Conclusions. In P. Romero-Fresco (Ed.), The Reception of Subtitles for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing in Europe (pp. 343-354). Peter Lang.
    • Fryer, L. & Romero-Fresco, P. (2014). Audiointroductions. In A. Mazerowska, A. Matamala & P. Orero (Eds.), Audio Description (pp. 11-28). John Benjamins.
    • Romero-Fresco, P. (2012). Quality in Live Subtitling: The Reception of Respoken Subtitles in the UK. In A. Remael, P. Orero & M. Carroll (Eds.), Audiovisual Translation at the Crossroads: Media for All 3 (pp. 111-131). Rodopi.
    • Romero-Fresco, P. (2010). A subtitulación por recoñecemento de fala: o refalado. In Inserción profesional d@s estudantes de traducción e interpretación (pp. 57-81). Atrio.
    • Romero-Fresco, P. (2010). D’Artagnan and the seven musketeers: SUBSORDIG travels to Europe. In A. Matamala & P. Orero (Eds.), Listening to subtitles: Subtitles for the deaf and hard of hearing (pp. 175-191). Peter Lang.
    • Romero-Fresco, P. (2010). Standing on quicksand: Hearing viewers’ comprehension and reading patterns of respoken subtitles for the news. In J. Díaz-Cintas, A. Matamala & J. Neves (Eds.), New insights into audiovisual translation and media accessibility. Media for all 2 (pp. 175-195). Rodopi.
    • Romero-Fresco, P. (2009). The fictional and translational dimensions of the language used in dubbing. Analysing audiovisual dialogue. In M. Pavesi & M. Freddi (Eds.), Linguistic and translational insights (pp. 41-57). Clueb.
    • Romero-Fresco, P. (2008). Hacia un estudio objetivo de la naturalidad en el español de doblaje. In J. Sanderson (Ed.), Películas antiguas, subtítulos nuevos: Análisis diacrónico de la traducción audiovisual (pp. 49-68). Universidad de Alicante.
    • Romero-Fresco, P. (2008). La subtitulación rehablada: palabras que no se lleva el viento. In Á. Ugena (Ed.), ULISES: Hacia el desarrollo de tecnologías comunicativas para la igualdad de oportunidades (pp. 49-73). Observatorio de las realidades sociales.
  • As principal investigator
    • Title: Galician Observatory for Media Accessibility (GALMA)

      Date: 2017-2021
      Principal Investigator: Pablo Romero Fresco (UVigo, GALMA)
      Participants: Ana Pereira (UVigo) and Mercedes Martínez Lorenzo (UVigo, GALMA)
      Funding institution: Xunta de Galicia (Axudas do Programa de Consolidación e Estruturación de Unidades de Investigación Competitivas)
      Budget: €115,000.
      Aim: To set up the Galician Observatory for Media Accessibility (GALMA) and conduct the first analysis on quantity and quality of media accessibility in Galicia.
    • 


Title: Interlingual Live Subtitling for Access (ILSA)

      Date: 2017-2020
      Principal Investigator: Pablo Romero Fresco (UVigo, GALMA)
      Participants: Luis Alonso (UVigo, GALMA), Ana Pereira (UVigo), Lourdes Lorenzo (Uvigo), Aline Remael (University of Antwerp), Isabelle Robert (University of Antwerp), Wojciech Figiel (University of Warsaw), Lukasz Dutka (University of Warsaw), Agnieszka Szarkowska (University of Warsaw), Franz Pöchhacker (University of Vienna), VRT (Vlaamse Radio en Televisieomroeporganisatie, Belgium) Intro PR (Poland).
      Funding body: Erasmus + (EU Commission)
      Budget: €245,643.
      
Aim: to identify the skills and profile of a new profesional, the interlingual live subtitler, and to develop, test and validate the first training course on interlingual live subtitling and provide a protocolo for the implementation of this discipline in three real-life scenarios: TV, political/sociañ settings and the classroom.
    • Title: MAP (Media Accessibility Platform)
      Date: 2016-2017
      Principal Investigator: Pablo Romero Fresco (UVigo, GALMA)
      Participants: Gian Maria Greco (UAB, GALMA), Pilar Orero (UAB) and Anna Matamala (UAB)
      Funding body: European Commission ((COMM/MAD/2016/04)
      Budget: €30,000.
      Aim: Development of the first world-wide repository on media accessibility (with information about research, training, legislation, etc) and organisation of the I Media Accessibility Platform International Conference in Vigo on 5 and 6 October 2017.
      This project is now led by Anna Matamala and Transmedia Catalonia, and the platform can be found at https://mapaccess.uab.cat/
    • 
Title: Accessible Filmmaking Guide
      
Date: 2017-2019
      Principal Investigator: Pablo Romero Fresco (UVigo, GALMA)
      Participants: Josh Branson (University of Roehampton, GALMA), Louise Fryer (UCL, GALMA), Jo-Jo Ellison (Archer’s Mark)
      Funding body: British Film Institute
      Budget: €5,000.
      Aim: to produce the first accessible filmmaking guide that can help filmmakers and producers to integrate translation and accessibility into the filmmaking process through collaboration with translators and media accessibility experts.
    • Title: QuaLiSpain
      Date: 2018-2020.
      Participants: Pablo Romero Fresco (UVigo, GALMA), Nazaret Fresno (University of Texas-Rio Grande Valley, GALMA), CESyA (Centro Español del Subtitulado y la Audiodescripción), TVE, Antena 3, Cuatro, Tele 5, La Sexta.
      Aim: The project envisages the first official assessment of live subtitling quality on Spanish TV. The aim is to analyse the accuracy rate (as measured by the NER model), latency and speed of the live subtitles produced for a sample of news, sports and interview programmes broadcast on the main national channels (TVE, Antena 3, Cuatro, Tele 5 and La Sexta).
    • Title: Certification of NER evaluators in Canada

      Date: 2017-2019
      Principal Investigator: Pablo Romero Fresco (UVigo, GALMA)
      Participants: Sabela Melchor Couto (University of Roehampton, GALMA)
      
Funding body: Canadian Radiotelevision Teleccomunications Commission
Budget: €45,000.
      Aim: to certify the first batch of NER evaluators in Canada so that they are trained to use the NER model to assess the quality of live captions on Canadian TV; to introduce the NER model as the official method for the assessment of live captioning quality in the country.
    • Title: Captioning glasses at the National Theatre. 

      Date: 2017-ongoing.
      Principal Investigator: Pablo Romero Fresco (UVigo, GALMA)
      Participants: Zoe Moores (University of Roehampton, GALMA) and Louise Fryer (UCL, GALMA)
      Funding body: National Theatre, UK.
      Budget
      : €113,000.
      
Aim: to analyse the feasibility and quality of the use of captioning glasses to display surtitles in the theatre.
  • As participant
    • Title: EASIT (Easy Access for Social Inclusion Training)

      Date: 2018-2021
      Principal Investigator: Anna Matamala (Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona)
      Participants: Dyslexiforbundet, SDI, Slovenja TV, Universidade de Vigo/GALMA, University of Trieste, University of Hildesheim.
      Funding body: Erasmus + (EU Commission)
      Budget: €400,000.
      Aim: to apply the concept of easy reading to the field of media accessibility, in particular subtitling and audio description.
    • 
Title: ITACA (Inclusión social, Traducción Audiovisual y Comunicación Audiovisual).
      Date: 2016-2019.
      Principal Investigators: José Luis Martí Ferriol (UJI) y Joaquín Granell Zafra (UJI)
      Participants: Frederic Chaume Varela (Universitat Jaume I), Irene de Higes Andino (Universitat Jaume I), Beatriz Cerezo Merchán (Universitat de Valencia), Ana Tamayo Masero (Universidad del País Vasco), Ana Mariá Prats Rodríguez (Universitat Internacional Valenciana), Pablo Romero Fresco (UVigo, GALMA), Ana Pereira Rodríguez (UVigo), Lourdes Lorenzo García (UVigo), Laura Cruz García (Universidad de las Palmas de Gran Canaria), Emilio Sáez Soro (Universitat Jaume I), Laura Mejías Climent (Universitat Jaume I)
      Funding body: MINECO – Ministerio de Economía y Competitividad (Proyecto de investigación nacional -Programa Estatal de Fomento de la Investigación Científica y Técnica de Excelencia).
      Budget: €30,250.
      Aim: to apply the notion of accessible filmmaking to audiovisual content produced for the Spanish TV.
    • Title: EU-VOS (Patrimonio Cultural Inmaterial. Para un programa europeo de subtitulado en linguas non hexemónicas). 

      Date: 2016-2019.
      Principal Investigators: Margarita Ledo Andión (Universidade de Santiago de Compostela) and Enrique Castelló Mayo (Universidade de Santiago de Compostela)
      Participants: Antía López Gómez (Universidade de Santiago de Compostela), Marta Pérez Pereiro (Universidade de Santiago de Compostela), Pablo Romero Fresco (UVigo, GALMA), Fernando Redondo Neira (Universidade de Santiago de Compostela), Henrique Monteagudo (Universidade de Santiago de Compostela), María José Deogracias (Education department, government of Navarra), Andrés Fraga Pérez (UVigo), Silvia Roca Baamonde (Universidade de Santiago de Compostela)
      Funding body: MINECO – Ministerio de Economía y Competitividad (Proyectos de Excelencia y Proyectos Retos, CSO2016-76014-R).
      Budget: €61,426.
      Aim: to survey and compare subtitling policies for minority languages at European, national and regional levels, to determine the main barriers to and motivations for the accessibility of minority language cinema and review approaches which consider subtitling a hinderance in the distribution of minority language films, to explore innovative approaches to linguistic accessibility in cinemas in particular and to audiovisual translation in general, including accessible filmmaking.
    • Title: SMART (Shaping Multilingual Access through Respeaking Technology).
      Dates: 2017-2019
      Principal Inverstigator: Elena Davitti (University of Surrey, GALMA)
      
Participants: Annalisa Sandrelli (UNINT, Rome, and GALMA) and Pablo Romero-Fresco (Uvigo, GALMA)
      Funding body: University of Surrey
      
Budget: €25,000.
      Aim: to conduct the first empirical analyses to determine the feasibility of interlingual respeaking and the skills required for this new discipline.
    • 
Title: Understanding User Responses to Live Closed Captioning in Canada.
      Dates: 2016-2019
      
Principal Investigator: Christie Chritelis (Technology Strategies International)
      Participants: Deborah Fels (Ryerson University), Pilar Orero (UAB) and Pablo Romero-Fresco (UVigo, GALMA).
      Funding body: Canadian Broadcasting Accessibility Fund
      Budget: €95, 245 euros.
      Aim: to conduct the first large-scale analysis of user perception in Canada regarding live captioning quality.

Pablo is currently teaching on the BA in Translation and Interpreting and on the MA in Multimedia Translation at Universidade de Vigo, at the MA in Audiovisual Translation at Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona and at the MA in Audiovisual Translation at Universidad Europea de Valencia. He taught for 10 years on the MA in Audiovisual Translation at the University of Roehampton, where he set up the first MA in Accessible Filmmaking.

He teaches or has taught the following modules at undergraduate and postgraduate level: Simultaneous interpreting, liaison interpreting, general translation, audiovisual translation, subtitling, subtitling for the deaf and hard of hearing, respeaking, dubbing, accessible filmmaking, film history, film theory and practice, film editing and film production (camera and sound)

Pablo has provided and is still providing consultancy services to governments, companies, broadcasters and user associations regarding media accessibility and accessible filmmaking. Some examples are the collaborations with the British governmental regulator Ofcom or the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission, which has recently adopted the NER model as official method to assess the accuracy of live captions on Canadian TV.

Pablo is providing online and face-to-face training on different aspects regarding media accessibility (subtitling for the deaf and hard of hearing, respeaking, accessible filmmaking, etc.) to companies, associations and universities all over the world. He also provides accessible filmmaking services to filmmakers or producers. Recent examples are the collaborations with the production company Archer’s Mark and the directors Pete Middleton and James Spinney for their award-winning documentary Notes on Blindness, or with filmmakers Jon Garaño and Aitor Arregi, directors of Handia, winner of 10 Goya awards in 2018. He has recently produced the Accessible Filmmaking Guide, commissioned by the British Film Institute, which he will present to the Brasilian film industry at the Alumiar film festival in Recife in November 2018.





Universidade de VigoXunta de GaliciaMinisterio de EconomíaEuropean Union

Universidade de Vigo Facultade de Filoloxía e Tradución | Despacho Newton 5 | Campus de Vigo As Lagoas | Ctra. de Marcosende | 36310 Vigo (España)
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