The International Certification for Respeakers is an international body run by the Galician Observatory for Media Access, an independent research group hosted at the University of Vigo (Spain). Our mission is to set and maintain high international standards in the respeaking profession to enable the existence of a pool of respeakers who can provide high-quality access through subtitles for live TV programmes and live events.
Panel of Experts
Certification Process
Respeakers will normally be expected by their employers to obtain one of the following certifications at least once every 3 years, starting at Level 1:
Level 1 Certification
TV
- three genres: news, sports, entertainment/chat shows
- 1 10-minute sample per genre
- one live attempt
- assessed with the NER model by two evaluators
- must obtain at least 3 stars out of 5 in 2 genres and 2 stars out of 5 in 1.
Education and Live Events
- three genres: classroom, conference, Q&A
- 1 10-minute sample per genre
- one live attempt
- assessed with the NER model by two evaluators
- must obtain at least 3 stars out of 5 in 2 genres and 2 stars out of 5 in 1.
- Unsuccessful candidates may re-register to take the test as many times as needed.
Level 2 Certification
TV
- three genres: news, sports, entertainment/chat shows
- 1 10-minute sample per genre
- one live attempt
- assessed with the NER model by two evaluators
- must obtain at least 3 stars out of 5 in 1 genres and 4 stars out of 5 in 2.
Education and Live Events
- three genres: classroom, conference, Q&A
- 1 10-minute sample per genre
- one live attempt
- assessed with the NER model by two evaluators
- must obtain at least 3 stars out of 5 in 1 genre and 4 stars out of 5 in 2.
- Unsuccessful candidates may re-register to take the test as many times as needed.
Level 3 Certification
TV
- three genres: news, sports, entertainment/chat shows
- 1 10-minute sample per genre
- one live attempt
- assessed with the NER model by two evaluators
- must obtain 4 stars in all genres.
Education and Live Events
- three genres: classroom, conference, Q&A
- 1 10-minute sample per genre
- one live attempt
- assessed with the NER model by two evaluators
- must obtain 4 stars in all genres.
- Unsuccessful candidates may re-register to take the test as many times as needed.
- For successful candidates, 12 months must have elapsed between each successful attempt.
Requirements for Evaluators
- They must become accredited NER evaluators, which involves completing successful NER assessments of live subtitles in one news programme, one sports programme, one entertainment programme/chat show, one class, one conference and one Q&A session.
- Respeaking experience will be highly valued
Quality Assurance
Strict quality assurance processes will be put in place in order to guarantee the fairness of the accreditation process. This will include annual audits conducted by independent parties and continuous monitoring by the panel of experts.
