Learning Center

DCMP-ACB STEM Description Vocabulary Project for Early Learners Who Are Blind and Visually Impaired

The Described and Captioned Media Program partnered with the American Council of the Blind (ACB) with the objective of enhancing the educational description guidelines, the Description Key, through results of a "STEM Description Vocabulary Project for Early Learners." This project involved assembling a group of educators, consisting of representatives from educational programs throughout the U.S., who compiled a list of words most commonly and consistently used as grade-level specific vocabulary.
From about description, research, blindness, description-key
Focus on Learning

Editors note: This article was written in April, 2020, and reflects DCMP during the period of 2016-2021.
From Dr. Marcia Kolvitz, Ph.D. about description, captioning, dcmp, educators, research
DCMP Year in Review

The Described and Captioned Media Program promotes and provides equal access to communication and learning through described and captioned educational media. We invite you to read our current Year in Review to discover our progress and accomplishments in the areas of COVID-19 Response, Content Creation, Media Delivery, Outreach, Technology, and User Feedback.
From about description, captioning, dcmp, research, technology
Autistic Spectrum, Captions and Audio Description

Researcher Judith Garman looks at whether captions and description can be beneficial for people with autism.
about research, captioning, description
DCMP Survey of Educators Reveals Great Potential for Described Educational Video

In April 2009 the Described and Captioned Media Program (DCMP) solicited input from teachers of students with visual impairments (TVIs) around the U.S. in an attempt to measure the awareness of the availability of described educational video-based media (i.e., video) and to uncover trends concerning overall video usage among TVIs. An online survey was publicized by way of various e-mail lists, websites, and professional development organizations; this effort resulted in 222 unique responses, summarized in the various sections below.
about research, description, educators
Audio Description From a Discourse Perspective

In her paper about audio description (AD), Sabine Braun outlines a discourse-based approach to AD focusing on the role of mental modeling, local and global coherence, and different types of inferences. Applying these concepts to AD, she discusses initial insights and outlines questions for empirical research, with an aim to showing that a discourse-based approach to AD can provide an informed framework for research, training and practice.
about research, description
Movie Subtitles Reading Skills of Elementary School Children

In a paper written in 2010, Michele Viana Minucci and Maria Silvia Cárnio evaluate the skills involved in reading movie subtitles of second and fourth graders of students at a public school. Considering the skills and the subtitles reading level, fourth graders presented a significant better performance when compared to the second graders. Fourth graders presented skills related to the levels of literal comprehension and independent comprehension, whereas second graders where mostly at the decoding level. In conclusion: second graders are at the textual decoding level of movie subtitles, while fourth graders are at the literal comprehension level of movie subtitles. This indicates that schooling has an influence on the reading of movie subtitles.
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Evaluating Alternative Styles of Audio Description in an Animated Comedy

This thesis investigates the impact of conventional and alternative styles of audio description on the blind and low viewers' comprehension, entertainment experience, trustworthiness of the audio description narrative, and style preference. Author John Riccio asked 18 blind and low vision participants to watch three episodes of the television show Odd Job Jack in a single audio description style. Each participant was asked to complete a pre and post study questionnaire, and a post episode questionnaire at the completion of each episode. Results indicated that the alternative style of audio description provided better understanding, entertainment value, and is more trustworthy.
about research, description
The Influence of English Language and Spanish Language Captions on Foreign Language Listening/Reading Comprehension

The purpose of this study was to investigate the effects of using Spanish captions, English captions, or no captions with a Spanish language soundtrack on the comprehension of intermediate students in a university-level "Spanish as a Foreign Language" class. Concludes with a discussion of the pedagogical implications of using multilingual captions in a variety of ways to enhance second language listening and reading comprehension. By Paul Markham and Lizette Peter, University of Kansas, 2002.
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Contrasting Visual and Verbal Cueing of Space: Strategies and Devices in the Audio Description of Film

A study by Maija Hirvonen, University of Helsinki, Finland, in 2012. Analyses how shot distance is reflected in audio description by syntactic and semantic means. Four different-language audio descriptions of two films were utlilized, contrasting the visual source text with the verbal translation. The study aims to show how audio description can make use of diverse representational strategies and linguistic devices in rendering shot distance. These strategies and devices could be used purposely to compensate for visual cues so as to give an idea of space similar to that conveyed by the visual representation.
about research, description
Using HTML5 and Javascript to Deliver Text Based Audio Descriptions

IBM Research Tokyo partnered with the National Center for Accessible Media at WGBH to research ways to deliver online descriptions via text-to-speech (TTS) methods, rather than using human recordings. IBM and NCAM explored two approaches which exploit HTML5 media elements—video, audio, and track—as well as Javascript.
about research, description
A Comparative Study of Audio Description Guidelines Prevalent in Different Countries

Comparison of description guidelines by six different countries: Spain, Germany, France, United Kingdom, Greece, and America. Though, in principal the guidelines and/or standards are very similar in nature, there are minor differences in a few of the recommendations. These differences could potentially be because of different formats of film/television programming being produced in different countries, different ways of watching films/television programs, cultural differences leading to relative levels of understanding of set-ups specific to different films/television programs, and also different ways in which audio description is made available i.e. through products specifically targeted at blind or partially sighted people or as an alternative sound track via mainstream services. Royal National Institute of Blind People, 2010.
about research, description
The Influence of English Language and Spanish Language Captions on Foreign Language Listening/Reading Comprehension

The purpose of this study was to investigate the effects of using Spanish captions, English captions, or no captions with a Spanish language soundtrack on intermediate university-level Spanish as a Foreign Language students' listening/reading comprehension. These findings indicate that intermediate-level foreign language students' listening comprehension/reading comprehension can be substantially enhanced via the use of captions in English or Spanish
about research, captioning, spanish
The Adlab Project: And Some Ideas on Audio Description

A PowerPoint report of the European Erasmus Multilateral Lifelong Learning project's goals to: 1) Create authoritative guidelines and/or proposals for the AD profession/industry in all Europe; 2) Develop curricula for universities in Europe: both for entertainment and for instruction; 3) Train audio describers and audio describer trainers; 4) Sensitize and influence decision-makers; 5) Create useful connections with the television industry and with the service providers. By Chris Taylor, 2013.
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Nonverbatim Captioning in Dutch Television Programs: A Text Linguistic Approach

In the Netherlands, as in most other European countries, closed captions for the deaf summarize texts rather than render them verbatim. Caption editors argue that this way television viewers have enough time to both read the text and watch the program. They also claim that the meaning of the original message is properly conveyed. However, many deaf people demand verbatim subtitles so that they have full access to all original information. They claim that vital information is withheld from them as a result of the summarizing process. Linguistic research was conducted in order to: (a) identify the type of information that is left out of captioned texts and (b) determine the effects of nonverbatim captioning on the meaning of the text. The differences between spoken and captioned texts were analyzed on the basis of on a model of coherence relations in discourse. One prominent finding is that summarizing affects coherence relations, making them less explicit and altering the implied meaning.
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Learning Center

DCMP-ACB STEM Description Vocabulary Project for Early Learners Who Are Blind and Visually Impaired

Focus on Learning

DCMP Year in Review

Autistic Spectrum, Captions and Audio Description

DCMP Survey of Educators Reveals Great Potential for Described Educational Video

Audio Description From a Discourse Perspective

Movie Subtitles Reading Skills of Elementary School Children

Evaluating Alternative Styles of Audio Description in an Animated Comedy

The Influence of English Language and Spanish Language Captions on Foreign Language Listening/Reading Comprehension

Contrasting Visual and Verbal Cueing of Space: Strategies and Devices in the Audio Description of Film

Using HTML5 and Javascript to Deliver Text Based Audio Descriptions

A Comparative Study of Audio Description Guidelines Prevalent in Different Countries

The Influence of English Language and Spanish Language Captions on Foreign Language Listening/Reading Comprehension

The Adlab Project: And Some Ideas on Audio Description

Nonverbatim Captioning in Dutch Television Programs: A Text Linguistic Approach