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These self-paced, online learning modules cover the topics of transition, note-taking, and learning about audio description.
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Filtering by tag: description
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.
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.
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.
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.
This general guide to the description of video, by Dicapta in 2012, proposes parameters, rules, and guidelines. The authors indicate that it is a difficult task to develop standards, given the creative and artistic nature of this activity.
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.
Joel Snyder tells us that Audio Description (AD) provides a verbal version of the visual for the benefit of people who are blind or have low vision. Succinct descriptions precisely timed to occur only during the pauses in dialogue or significant sound elements of performing arts or in media allow persons with vision impairments to have greater access to the images integral to a given work of art. Mr. Snyder provides a brief summary of the history of description and then overviews how creating description is an art, the venues for description, skills required of a professional describer, and why description is important to literacy.
Science programs on television present much of their information only visually. For people who are visually impaired this reliance on visual cues limits access to the learning and enjoyment such programs offer. Emilie Schmeidler discusses the intent to provide visually impaired people with more access to the programs' content and to make viewing more satisfying by ensuring that people with disabilities have the same access to information and opportunities that people without disabilities do.
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.
How can a blind or visually impaired person enjoy the theatre? Or movies, television, and other audiovisual productions? How can visual experiences effectively be made verbal? Gregory Frazier, founder of AudioVision, was a key figure in the early development of audio description for persons with a visual impairment. Watch this historical treasure, introduced by Margaret Hardy, and learn from Emmy Award winner Frazier, a pioneer in the field.
This listing was prepared from information provided by various description-related sources and from surveys conducted by the DCMP. While the DCMP has attempted to identify all service vendors, it apologizes for any omissions. As additional service vendors are identified, they will be included in this list. Listing of a service vendor does not constitute an endorsement by the U.S. Department of Education, the National Association of the Deaf, or the DCMP.
Working with sound as a producer, audio engineer, or voice-over artist seems like a natural fit for a professional who has vision loss.
Years ago, my wife, Esther Geiger, was driving some children to a drama class, and the kids were chattering excitedly about the movie "Toys." It takes place in a toy factory, and the film is filled with colorful images and movement gags—but not a lot of dialogue. One child in the car, who was blind, said, "Oh, I saw that. It was the most boring movie I've ever been to!" Indeed, this was well before the advent of audio description for film.
Joyce Adams, National Captioning Institute, provides additional information about the important question of color.
Margaret Hardy, a pioneer in the field of audio description, discusses Gregory Frazier's descriptive services work in San Francisco with AudioVision.
