Gower: ‘What’s dumb in show, I’ll plain with speech.’
(W. Shakespeare, Pericles, Act III, Prologue)
Audio description (AD) is increasingly recognised as a constituent part of audiovisual translation studies (AVT), complementing subtitling for the deaf and hard of hearing (SDH) by providing access to media for blind and partially sighted people. Although many academic articles and a number of books have been published on AD in recent years, to the best of the author’s knowledge, there is no practical manual for students combining the results of such research with practical advice. This book aims to fill the gap, targeting the growing readership in AVT at universities. This includes students and researchers and those responsible for delivering AD courses. This book may also be of interest to the general public and anyone with an interest in linguistics, psycholinguistics, visual perception, media, film or disability. Although it focuses on AD in the UK, as that is the location of my own experience, attempts have been made to refer to description across Europe, the United States and elsewhere whenever possible.
Most of this book’s content draws on actual postgraduate AD courses taught by the author at City University, Imperial College and University College London (on-campus) and the University of Macerata in Italy (online) and delivering training courses for broadcast media in the UK and abroad. As AD began in theatre, at least in the UK, this book also draws on practical courses I have delivered with the Audio Description Association (ADA UK) and VocalEyes (a UK arts and access charity) concentrating on AD of live performance, such as theatre, opera, dance and open-air festivals. Although occasionally the boundaries between ‘screen’ AD and AD for live events are blurred with live AD provided for film screenings, there are distinct differences between writing and delivering AD for audiovisual (AV) media and for live performance, and I will discuss both types. Rather than giving you a set of hard and fast rules to follow, I intend to help you discover what questions to ask yourself when presented with an AV ‘text’ to describe, so that you can create your own solutions to the unique set of challenges presented each time, while keeping in mind what the (at times contradictory) guidelines in different countries propose and keeping the needs of the users uppermost.
This book is designed to be read sequentially, as each chapter builds on the previous one. The opening chapters are largely theoretical and are aimed at embedding the reader in the perceptual and meaning-making questions at the heart of AD. AD is largely discussed from a cognitive perspective. Chapter 4 introduces the reader to the AD audience so that AD students understand both why AD is necessary and the heterogeneous nature of those who use it. Chapters 4–7 are the practical core of the book, with exercises and checklists to help guide students and teachers.
Chapters 8–14 go beyond the basics to explore additional elements, such as audio introductions (Chapter 12), which complement the dynamic AD, freeing it of many of its time constraints. They take a broader perspective, looking at areas of challenge and contention such as description of camerawork (Chapter 10) and AD and censorship (Chapter 11). AD is still evolving and the final chapter looks ahead to areas ripe for future research.