Audio Description 101

Jesús Pulido – Accessible Media Coordinatorjesus.pulido@amac.gatech.edu | (404) 894-8303

AMAC Accessibility Solutions and Research Center College of Design

Georgia Institute of Technology

Agenda

Part I• History of AD• AD Essentials

Part II• Practice Exercises • Questions and Discussion

Why create accessible media?

It’s the law!

1998 Rehabilitation Act added Section 508.Federal agencies must make their electronic and informationtechnology accessible to people with disabilities. Section 508“Refresh” updates are upcoming.

2010 21st Century Communications and Video Accessibility Act.Currently applies to broadcast multimedia. Requires a minimumamount of audio described content by leading broadcasters.

History of Audio Description

History of Audio Description1974 Audio description was first developed byEmmy Award-winner Gregory Frazier.

1987-1988 WGBH, PBS, et al. pre-recordedaudio description for American Playhouseproductions.

History of Audio Description

Gregory Frazier and his legacy

History of Audio Description1990 The National Academy ofTelevision Arts and Sciencesawards special Emmys to fourorganizations that brought audiodescription to television:• AudioVision Institute (Gregory

Frazier),• Metropolitan Washington Ear

(Margaret Pfanstiehl),• Narrative Television Network

(James Stovall),• and PBS/WGBH (Barry Cronin

and Laurie Everett).

History of Audio Description1998 Congress amends the Rehabilitation Act by adding Section 508 to requireFederal agencies to make their electronic and information technology accessibleto people with disabilities.

Beginning in June 2001, all film, video, multimedia, and information technologyproduced or procured by Federal agencies must include audio description.

History of Audio Description

2008 The Described and Captioned Media Program (DCMP), working with the American Foundation for the Blind, publishes its Description Key, guidelines for the description of educational media.

History of Audio Description2010 President Obama signs the 21st Century Communicationsand Video Accessibility Act.

21st Century Communications and Video Accessibility Act

The law mandates

• 4 hours per week of video description• on the top 4 broadcast networks• and top 5 cable channels• in the top 25 most populated

markets.

The law prescribes incremental expansion of video description over a period of years to achieve 100 percent nationwide coverage.

Audio Description BenefitsAudio description is primarily intended forusers who are blind or hard of sight(visually impaired).

• 285 million people are estimated to bevisually impaired worldwide.

• 39 million are blind and 246 million havelow vision

• 82% of people living with blindness areaged 50 and above (WHO, 2014).

With an increasing elderly population inmany countries, more people will be at riskof visual impairment due to chronic eyediseases and aging processes.

Audio Description Benefits

A multimodal presentation ofinformation benefits everyone,especially students.

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Audio DescriptionThe viewer must have access to information presented visually.

• Diagrams, maps, graphs.• Telephone numbers, addresses, hyperlinks, email addresses.

Special consideration:• Speaker identification.• Subtitles if a foreign language is spoken.• Credits.

Tip: Listen to your video without watching the screen. Can youcomprehend all of the information being presented?

Best Practices

• Describe what you see. One sees physical appearances andactions; one does not see motivations or intentions. Never describewhat you think you see.

• Describe objectively. Allow listeners to form their own opinions anddraw their own conclusions. Don’t editorialize, interpret, explain,analyze, or “help” listeners in any other way.

• Allow listeners to hear the dialogue.

Best Practices

• Trust listeners’ ability to comprehend the material. Don’tcondescend, patronize, or talk down to listeners.

Best Practices

• Censorship is unfair to the material and to listeners. Describersmust say the factual information about nudity, sexual acts, violence,et cetera.

• Keep the language consistent. Choose language that is consistentwith the content of the material.

Best Practices

• Describe from the listeners’ perspective. Surprises should,ideally, come at the same time for all audience members. Ifcharacters’ appearances or actions, hidden identities,costumes, sight gags, or sound effects happen as a surpriseto sighted audience members, don’t spoil the surprise forlisteners by describing (and revealing) them in advance.

Race, Ethnicity, and Nationality

• Avoid offering judgment about a character’s culturalbackground. Not all people with brown skin have African heritage.

• Describing skin color and facial features is an all-or-nothingproposition. If it’s important to note this for one character, thendescribe this for all characters.

Race, Ethnicity, and Nationality

Terms that may be helpful in describingskin color: light tan, olive, pale pink, ruddycomplexion, tan, porcelain.

Going Mainstream

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Going Mainstream

Example of Audio Description

Hellen Keller in Paris to Honor Louis Braille (1952)

Vivid Description is Colorful Description

Vivid Description is Colorful Description

Vivid Description is Colorful Description

Vivid Description is Colorful Description

Vivid Description is Colorful Description

Vivid Description is Colorful Description

Exercise

Exercise

Exercise

Re-Inventing the Wheel Not Needed

Questions? Comments?

Slides and Resources available at

https://goo.gl/UqOnVy

References

http://www.audiodescriptioncoalition.org/history.html

http://www.who.int/mediacentre/factsheets/fs282/en/

http://listeningislearning.org

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0GsGfV2yUIU

https://www.dcmp.org/descriptionkey/

http://www.captionfish.com

http://www.guggenheim.org/new-york/online/audio/verbal-descriptions