Seeing With Your Ears: Audio Description — A Definition
Audio Description (AD) makes the visual images of theater, media and visual art accessible for people who are blind or have low vision. Using words that are succinct, vivid, and imaginative (via the use of similes or comparisons), describers convey the visual image that is either inaccessible or only partially accessible to a segment of the population. In addition, the visual image is often not fully realized by people who see, but who may not observe.
Description may also benefit people who prefer to acquire information primarily by auditory means and those who are limited—by proximity or technology, for instance—to accessing audio of an event or production. While description was developed for people who are blind or visually impaired, many others may also benefit from description’s concise, objective “translation” of the key visual components of various art genres and social settings.
I believe that Audio Description is a literary art form in itself. It’s a type of poetry – a haiku. It provides a verbal version of the visual – the visual is made verbal, aural (he points to his ear) and oral (he points to his mouth). A haiku because describers must use as few words as possible to convey that visual image for the benefit of people—all people, including children—who are blind or have low vision. Audio Description is an “Assistive Technology”; it is meant to enhance, not replace the user’s own powers of observation.
This website is designed to be used in association with my book: THE VISUAL MADE VERBAL—A Comprehensive Training Manual and Guide to the History and Applications of Audio Description.
The practica samples listed on the left are discussed in the book and are provided here to ellucidate the concepts presented or function as practica for the reader who wishes to develop his/her skills as a describer.
And keep me posted on your progress–or contact me with questions at: [email protected] More information is available at my website – www.audiodescribe.com – or at the website of the American Council of the Blind’s Audio Description Project – www.acb.org/adp.
Enjoy!
Joel Snyder, PhD
President, Audio Description Associates, LLC
Director, Audio Description Project, American Council of the Blind