Service Learning Project

EDU 1400
Kristina Alviar

For this project I chose to type subtitles on Amara.org, which is a service that offers

subtitles for those with hearing impairments or to those who don’t understand the language made

in the original video. People will volunteer from different areas of the world to type subtitles for

this reason. I enjoyed my volunteer work for Amara because there were so many videos that

were consistently being submitted to this platform and I saw that even recent videos had subtitles

added already. I liked seeing how many people took their time to help the lives of others.

It was amazing to view their mission for a more inclusive media ecosystem for myself.

Amara was created by the Participatory Culture Foundation, which encourages people to

contribute to a society and culture that they themselves would want to live in. Part of their

mission statement says, “PCF is dedicated to creating technologies, services, and communities

that ensure a more collaborative, inclusive world.”1 Amara really does contribute to that

statement because of the collaboration from hearing people around the world. It also makes for

more inclusivity because it gives everyone equal opportunity and resources to hearing impaired

people, as well as people who don’t understand the language, to view the same material in a way

they understand.

During my volunteer time with Amara, I typed out subtitles that ranged from less than

one minute in length, to over 15 minutes. I found that I enjoyed typing subtitles for videos with

slower speakers and videos that ranged from 2-5 minutes in length because I could subtitle those
1
Participatory Culture Foundation. (n.d.). Retrieved May 1, 2022, from https://pculture.org/
videos completely in an hour or less. When editing the videos that I enjoyed best I could really

feel what this service was about. I learned that so many people around the world enjoy typing

subtitles for this service because of the contribution you are making to people in the disability

community as well as societies around the world.

Recently, I got to chat with a person who is blind. He had lost his eyesight because of

having too much oxygen in his incubator when he was put into the NICU shortly after he was

born. A short while ago he decided it was best to remove both of his eyes. When asking him

questions because I had never met a blind person before, I used those answers to guide me in the

volunteer work I did. I asked him about how he knows who is texting or calling, and how he

types on his phone. He showed me that his phone has accommodations like braille and fast

speech to tell him everything happening on his phone, even while he is scrolling. The voice was

so fast that I wouldn’t be able to comprehend anything it was saying, but for him it is the most

essential part of being able to use a cell phone. I thought of how amazing those accommodations

were and how even writing these subtitles can help a hearing impaired person drastically.

Because of my volunteer work and the experience with the blind person I met, it gave me

more of an understanding about how incredible technology is and how technology is able to help

so many different kinds of people. I took a look through my phone settings and found that there

were so many accommodations that I hadn’t even thought of before. I saw that there was a braille

option for blind people. There was an option for changing text size and zoom features for vision

impaired people. There are subtitles options as well as headphone options for hearing loss in one

or both ears. There are so many more accommodations and that’s only on the phone that I use. I
am glad that technology has taken PWD’s into consideration when developing new features. It

makes for more inclusivity in things we use on a daily basis.

My volunteer work with Amara was a very meaningful experience and helped me to

understand how services like these can improve the lives of so many people. It is so important to

understand that there are people that are different from us, and to keep an open mind throughout

our lives. Truly learning about something will always start from being open minded in that topic,

and I think that people don’t really experience many interactions with PWD’s so they don’t really

take them into consideration in many things. Once you meet a PWD it can open your mind to

thinking of how that person is experiencing the world and how it’s probably much different than

yours. It gives you the opportunity to ask questions and educate yourself more on the topic.

Volunteering with services like Amara has shaped my view on how other people are

experiencing the world different from I am, and showed me that I can contribute some of my

time to impact the lives of others.