Learning Center

Screenwriting Tip: Audio Description for the Blind By Eleanor Ball

On her blog devoted to writing tips for screenwriters and novelists, Lucy V. Hay reveals her discovery that description for the blind is an inspiration for writers. The new narration added has to be clear, simple, recognizable, and succinct. Listening to it is like attending a scriptwriting masterclass.

Audio Description, A Visual Assistive Discourse

Individuals who are visually impaired and blind face challenges in accessing many types of texts including television, films, textbooks, software, and the Internet because of the rich visual nature of these media. In order to provide these individuals with access to this visual information, special assistive technology allows descriptive language to be inserted into the text to represent the visual content. This study investigates this descriptive language. A thesis written by Philip Piety, Georgetown University, in 2003.

World Blind Union Toolkit On Providing, Delivering and Campaigning for Audio Description on Television and Film

Though informally there has been much sharing of experience, the worldwide community has not worked systematically together to achieve our aim of an inclusive world of television and film. This document aims to gather the lessons learned in different countries, and to help build capacity across the World Blind Union membership to campaign for audio description. Defines description, and provides technical information and lobbying tips. World Blind Union, 2007.

Accessible Video: What Does that Mean?

Videos can be a terrific medium for driving the point home, as long as the time is taken to ensure they'll drive that point home for everyone – including those with impairments that might make audio or visual information difficult to process. Overviews captioning and description, and discusses the importance of each. By Carlin Headrick, Learning Insights, 2013.

Caption Viewer Survey: Error Ranking of Real Time Captions in Live Television News

The WGBH National Center for Accessible Media (NCAM) reported in 2010 that it was conducting the Caption Accuracy Metrics Project (funded by the U.S. Department of Education, National Institute on Disability and Rehabilitation Research) to explore using language-processing tools to develop a prototype automated caption accuracy assessment system for real-time captions in live TV news programming.

The Captioning Key (Spanish Translation)

A 2011 Spanish translation by Dicapta of the DCMP Captioning Key.

Translating Audio Description Scripts: The Way Forward?

Report on the 2006 testing of the hypothesis of translating or adapting audio description scripts as a faster and more financially viable way to create audio described films. Adapting the audio description from a script instead of creating a description script from scratch from the already dubbed version seems a viable alternative.

Let a Billion Readers Bloom: Same Language Subtitling (SlS) on Television for Mass Literacy

An estimated 250 million officially "literate" people in India cannot read a simple text. Same Language Subtitling (SLS) aims to make reading an integral part of the everyday life of all so-called "literate" people in India, especially the 250 million or so "literates" who quite possibly cannot yet read the day's newspaper headlines. The challenge is to transition large numbers of these budding readers to a functional reading level. By Brij Koth

Same Language Subtitling on Tv: Impact on Basic Reading Development Among Children and Adults

Same Language Subtitling (SLS) was implemented on two nationally telecast Hindi film song programs, Chitrahaar and Rangoli, between 2002 to present. SLS was designed to enable automatic and subconscious reading practice among over 100 million early literates for one hour/week. This study revisited more than 13,000 illiterates and semi-literates randomly drawn from five states, to get a snap-shot of their reading skills at the baseline before the SLS intervention (2002), a year later (2003), and again in 2007. Conclusion: SLS contributes significantly to reading improvement. By Brij Kothari, Tathagata Bandyopadhyay and Debanjan Bhattacharjee, Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad. (2007).

Benefits of Sign Language Interpreting and Text Alternatives for Deaf Students' Classroom Learning

Presents findings, which combined with other recent studies, suggest that there is no inherent advantage or disadvantage to print materials (C-Print or CART) relative to high-quality sign language in the classroom. By the National Technical Institute for the Deaf, the University of Aberdeen, the Royal Institute for Deaf and Blind Children, the University of Western Sydney, Radboud University Nijmegen, and the University of New England. (2006).

Using Captions to Reduce Barriers to Native American Student Success

Effect of Caption Rate on the Comprehension of Educational Television Programmes by Deaf School Students

Published in Deafness and Education International (2009), several experts investigate how the rate of caption delivery affects the comprehension of educational programmes by better- and poorer-reading deaf school children. Participants watched three short documentaries, with captions presented at 90, 120, or 180 words per minute (wpm). Across both reading levels, comprehension was uniformly higher at 90 and 120 wpm than at 180 wpm. These results suggest that the rate of captions in children's television programmes can safely use 120 wpm as a slowest speed.

Go, Class, Go: Using Dr. Seuss in Early Reading Instruction

Dr. Tamby Allman wrote most of this article while serving as a teacher of deaf students in a kindergarten/first grade, self-contained classroom in Highland Park, Illinois. Dr. Seuss books came to her mind as she sought beginner-level books to help her students move to more fluent reading and increase their sight vocabulary. However, so much of the joy of Dr. Seuss is the use of rhymes and nonsense words, her colleagues said, and are probably not an ideal choice for readers who are deaf. That worried Tamby too, but she'd seen her students picking the books off the shelves of the library, and she knew that many of them already had Dr. Seuss books, videos, and toys at home. In other words, the books met the most important criterion for authentic texts: appeal to the children. Read about her successful experiences with these books in early reading instruction.

Captioned Media: Literacy Support for Diverse Learners

Captioned or subtitled media is a great tool for teachers looking to differentiate classroom instruction—research has shown that ELLs, students with learning disabilities, and students who struggle academically may all benefit from following along with captions while watching a classroom video. Learn more about the benefits of captioned media and additional resources for captioned material from this article that appears on the Reading Rockets website.

Corpus Based Analysis of Audio Description

This paper presents an investigation into the automated analysis of audio description scripts for 91 films. The investigation reveals some idiosyncratic features of what appears to be a special language. The existence of a special language is explained in part by the fact that audio description is produced by trained professionals following established guidelines, and its idiosyncrasies are explained by considering its communicative function – in particular that it is being used to tell a story.