OTP volunteer talks about why transcribing TEDx talks is important

Open Translation Project volunteer Bob Prottas talks about his experience of transcribing TEDx talks, making them available for translation in 100+ languages.

Film by Kier Atherton. Produced by Kristin Windbigler. Music by Wartime Blues.

To learn more about TED's Open Translation Project, go to TED.com/translate

My name is Bob Prottas.

I'm from Trumbull, Connecticut,
in the United States.

I'm here at the TEDActive Conference 2015.

I used to be a chemist
with DuPont for 27 years,

and four years ago I retired.

My oldest son is deaf
and he was adopted from Korea,

and I remember watching
TV shows with him with the subtitles,

and I thought, "You know,
it's nice having subtitles."

I saw it as my mission
to subtitle these TED talks,

so the Deaf and hard-of-hearing
could see them,

and then I learned
about the whole translation project,

where they translate the subtitles
into other languages.

I take an English talk
and add subtitles in English.

Well, then they can take those subtitles

and turn them into different languages,

so people all over the world
can view these,

and read them in their own language,

which I think is pretty impressive.

There are so many talks to choose from,

that you've got to wonder where to start.

And the beauty of it is,

there's the TED organization,
which really promotes a lot.

But then there are a lot of TEDx talks,

and they're like pearls --
like diamonds in the rough.

It's really pretty exciting;

you've got this much broader audience.

A little effort on my part goes a long way

to make this a worldwide phenomenon.

I like that.