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Audio Description As A Pedagogical Tool - Kleege - Disability Studies Quarterly
Audio Description As A Pedagogical Tool - Kleege - Disability Studies Quarterly
Georgina Kleege
Department of English
University of California, Berkeley
E-mail: kgleege@berkeley.edu
Scott Wallin
Department of Theater, Dance, and
Performance Studies
University of California, Berkeley
E-mail: swallin@berkeley.edu
Keywords:
Abstract
Audio description is the process of translating visual information into words for
people who are blind or have low vision. It was originally developed as an access
accommodation in live theater, cinema, television broadcasts and museum
collections. As audio description has become more common, particularly with the
DVD releases of Hollywood films, some consumers and creators are now
questioning its nature and exploring potential uses. Audio description is mainly still
understood as an accommodation similar to closed captioning: a neutral,
unobtrusive act of translation that moves information from one medium into
another. But some of us are intrigued by the ways that audio description is
inherently different from methods of accommodation that minimally influence the
subjects and discursive practices they work to make accessible.
First of all, one can never put into words every single aspect of any visual. Instead,
as Snyder himself notes, "describers must cull from what they see, selecting what
is most important to convey."3 This filtering and prioritizing is thus actually an
unavoidably subjective perspective that renders the describer into an interlocutor
who shares her own interpretations and values. We should therefore not
understand audio description as straight translation at all. Description, upon
delivery, becomes for the listener a primary component of any film, television show,
live performance, or artwork. This is because the act of describing is itself an
aesthetic performance that generates its own meanings. For example, the chosen
language and qualities of its vocal delivery, such as timbre, prosody, inflection,
rhythm, pronunciation, accent, volume, and the perceived gender and age of the
describer, all richly flavor a description and shape audience understanding and
response to whatever is being described. Furthermore, it is impossible to truly
replicate exact meaning and experience across different mediums. Drawing on the
universal design principle of "effective communication," John-Patrick Udo and
Deborah I. Fels observe that any film director must manipulate cinematic
conventions in order to bring about a specific emotional response by the viewer. 4
But different mediums induce different responses. Therefore, they claim, we should
see audio description not as providing information per se but rather providing
stimuli that is equivalent to but nevertheless fundamentally different than the work's
visual components. In sum, audio description must not be considered as an act of
pure translation that is one step removed from the original artwork. Description can
and should elicit an audience's emotional reactions and produce understandings of
the artwork that are in tandem and dialogue with the work's other components.
Below, we offer several suggestions for how audio description can be used in
classrooms as one facet of inclusive design. But these description activities are not
just ways to provide access for people who are blind and visually impaired; they
can be performed when there is no blind person present. Such work can help all
students think critically about the visual media they encounter daily both inside and
beyond the classroom. As with the familiar wheelchair ramp analogy, an access
feature designed for a subset of the disabled population ends up benefitting
everyone. As one final note, let us say that the goal of the exercises outlined below
is not to compile a list of rules for audio description. This has been already done by
practitioners, such as Snyder, who, despite offering an overly rigid perspective,
does outline many helpful steps and considerations. But perhaps more importantly,
we actually reject the notion of fixing best practices. Instead of codifying rules of
what one should or should not do, we challenge normative perceptions and
assumptions on the use of audio description and wish to explore strategies that
vary depending upon the context of audience, material, and critical and aesthetic
goals.
Background
Georgina Kleege has used audio description as a teaching tool for many years. It
all began in a fiction writing workshop. During a break, a student was browsing
through a pile of story collections and commented on the back cover photograph of
Raymond Carver saying, "Wow, I didn't think he'd look like that." Kleege asked
what it was that surprised him. He was unable to explain and showed the photo to
another student who agreed that Carver's photo did not match his expectations.
Soon, other students weighed in, pointing out specific aspects of the photograph,
the author's expression, posture and clothing, set against what they had come to
believe about the author from his literary aesthetic. There then followed a lengthy
discussion of the photograph with what turned out to be very rich analysis of the
visual rhetoric of the image, and the convention of authors' photographs in general.
Since then, Kleege has used the exercises below in various classes and contexts.
Though students initially feel that they are being asked to be helpful to their blind
professor, they soon learn that the process of translating visual media into
language has a multitude of other values.
Scott Wallin's use of audio description began when he turned to audio description
as a theater director in order to make a university production of Martin Crimp's
Attempts on her Life more inclusive.5 Although he was initially concerned with how
certain disabled students and community members could access the show, he
quickly became aware that the act of audio description unavoidably becomes a
unique aspect of the performance with its own aesthetic and critical commentary. In
the case of Crimp's postdramatic play, which is specifically about the politics of
representation, audio description offered an additional way for the production to call
attention to its own language, images, and other symbolic actions. In order to make
the project more inclusive and analytical, students in a concurrent sound design
course were invited to focus on the audio description as their main curriculum for
the semester. They subsequently created polyvocal, self-reflexive description that
included not only factual information of what spectators might see onstage but also
additional soundscapes and commentary that wove extra critical and aesthetic
layers into the production. The success of the project spurred Wallin to more
recently use audio description in his scholarly courses as a way to facilitate
students' close reading and analysis of a variety of visual texts. These description
projects also reinforce disability awareness and inclusion into any subject matter
that otherwise might not specifically foreground a theme on disability.
Sample Exercises
Participatory Description
Instructions.
The instructor chooses an image related to the course material. This can be
anything from a slide of a painting, a news photograph, a screen shot of a
website, a book jacket image, etc. The instructor asks for some volunteers
who will turn their backs and not look at the image. Note: this is not a
simulation exercise. The students who are not looking at the image should not
be told to pretend that they are blind. Rather, they should pay close attention
to the discussion that follows. The instructor displays the image and asks the
class to describe what they see. It's a good idea to begin with a question such
as, "Where does your eye go first?" After one or two students have offered
some description, the instructor can ask for additional information or
clarification, "Where do you see that?" When contradictions arise, the
instructor can invite other students to elaborate or point out additional details.
Once students are reasonably satisfied with this preliminary description, (and
depending on the context of the class) the instructor can ask them to describe
the emotional effect of the image, "How does it make you feel? How do you
think it's supposed to make you feel?" The instructor can invite students to link
these emotional responses to specific aspects of the image.
Now the students who are not looking at the image can turn around and look
at it. They can comment on how the actual images differ from what they now
see. What aspects of the group's description were particularly helpful or
misleading? Seeing the image now, what features do they think are most
useful to highlight? This close reading can lead to further analysis of not only
the described object but also why it is perceived in the ways that it is.
Note: Blind and visually impaired students can participate in this exercise by
helping the instructor question the group.
Instructions.
Divide the class into groups of three or four students. Choose an image or
images related to the course content. Everyone can work with the same
image, or each group can receive a different image.
1. Each student should study the image for a few minutes then compile a
list of five nouns that relate to the image. This can be a list of objects or
bodies pictured.
2. Students compile a list of five adjectives that either describe the objects
or people in the image, or refer to their own emotional response to the
image.
3. Students compare their lists and discuss their choices. What nouns and
adjectives recur in every list? Who named elements that others did not,
and why? (The question of "why?" is particularly helpful because when
students recognize what aspects they chose to emphasize and ignore,
they can begin to explore the reasons behind their selections. What does
this editorialization tacitly tell us about how an image is seen,
understood, and appreciated or dismissed? In other words, whether or
not the describer intends it, every description reflects the rhetorical
"performance" of the image or event and its reception.) Following this
discussion, each group compiles new lists of the best, most accurate or
favorite nouns and adjectives.
4. Students collaborate to write a paragraph describing the image, which
contains the five nouns and adjectives. Depending on the context of the
class, this description can be a narrative explaining the image, a
journalistic or scientific report detailing features of the image, an
aesthetic critique of the image, etc.
Note: Blind and visually impaired students can participate by leading the
discussion of the other students' lists, and contributing to the writing of the
descriptive paragraph.
YouDescribe
Instructions.
This project is best done over several class periods or several weeks.
Students can work independently or in groups of two or three. The instructor
can choose a video for everyone or allow each student or group to select a
video that relates to the course content. For example, in a class on
representations of disability in literature, students could choose a clip from
movie versions of texts read in class. A course about theater, dance, or
performance art would naturally have videos of its subject matter. The same
holds true in social sciences classes that seek to practice a thick description of
any filmed social setting or practice. Biology or chemistry students could look
for instructional videos that might be assigned to middle school or high school
science students or, alternatively, seek out any relevant physical object or
process that has been captured on film. The instructor should indicate a
minimum and maximum length for the video. Description for a five minute
video can take several hours to script, record, edit and revise.
Note: Blind and visually impaired students can participate as a part of a team,
scripting, recording and reviewing the description.
The following are guidelines for students for the YouDescribe exercise.
Go to: http://youdescribe.ski.org/rel/.
Read the guidelines for describers. Note that YouDescribe allows you to add
description in two ways. You can either pause the video and insert your
description, or you can record a brief, "in-line" description, which will be
audible as the video is playing and must be timed so that it doesn't overlap
with dialogue, narration or other audible elements. Screen some of the
described videos on the site and evaluate the description. How would you do it
differently?
Before you get to work on your own project, everyone will do a practice
description of a short video that your instructor will choose for the purpose.
This is mainly to be sure that you are comfortable with the technology. You
should try to use both recording methods: the pause method where you insert
the description while the video is paused; and the inline method, where the
description is timed to occur in between the dialogue and other sounds while
the video is playing. [The instructor can guide the students to particular
examples. Some of this discussion can take place in class.]
1. Screen the video you are planning to describe several times and consider
the following questions:
Who is the intended audience for the video—the general public? Adults?
Children? Once you have figured out the intended audience for the
video, how will this affect the vocabulary, level of detail, and type of
information you use in your description?
How do the visual elements (moving and still images, graphics, titles,
subtitles, captions, etc.) and the audio elements (dialogue, voiceover
narration, sound effects, music, etc.) work together? In other words, are
there instances where the same information is delivered audibly and
visually at the same time? Are there occasions where most of the
meaning comes from one modality over the other?
Listen to the video without watching the images and note where some
kind of explanation is necessary to understand what's going on. Are their
peripheral details that add to the general meaning of the video?
2. Write a script for your description, recognizing that this will change as you
go along. Be sure to indicate when you will read any text that appears on
screen (titles, captions, subtitles, credits, etc.). Depending on your video, you
may want to compose a brief introduction at the beginning of the script. For
example: "This is a scene from the movie…. " As you compose your script,
consider the following questions:
When will you pause the video to insert your description, and when will
you use the in-line method? Is one technique better for your purposes?
Think about your tone of voice and speed of delivery. Is it better to
maintain a neutral tone and constant rate of delivery throughout, or are
there occasions where varying your tone or speed will help enhance
meaning?
If there's humor in the video that depends on a sight gag or other visual
element, is it better to announce this in advance of when it happens or
after the fact?
[The instructor may want to review these scripts, or form small groups of
students to workshop their scripts, before starting the recording process.]
3. Record your description. Once you are satisfied with your description play it
for friends and/or classmates. Ask them to listen to the video with your
description without watching the visual elements. Are there places where they
need additional information? Are there other places where your description is
excessive or intrusive? Use this feedback to edit your description. [This review
process can be done in class or the instructor can form groups of students to
share their projects and give feedback to each other.]
Endnotes
1. Joel Snyder, The Visual Made Verbal: A Comprehensive Training Manual and
Guide to the History and Applications of Audio Description (Arlington:
American Council of the Blind, 2014), 11.
Return to Text
2. See, for example, Andrew Holland, "Audio Description in the Theatre and the
Visual Arts: Images into Words," in Audiovisual Translation: Language
Transfer on Screen, edited by G. Andermann and J. Díaz-Cinta (Basingtoke:
Palgrave Mcmillan, 2009), 170-185; Katie O'Reilly, "A Playwright Reflects on
'Alternative Dramaturgies'," Research in Drama Education: The Journal of
Applied Theatre and Performance 14, no. 1 (2009): 31-35; John-Patrick Udo
and Deborah I. Fels, "The Rogue Poster-Children of Universal Design:
Closed Captioning and Audio Description," Journal of Engineering Design 21,
no. 2-3 (2010): 207-221.
Return to Text
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