Audio description: to elicit mental images for those who do not see

A way to increase the accessibility for people with visual impairment and blindness is audio description. The task of the interpreter is to select relevant information from the visual scene (events, environment, people, their appearance, facial expressions, gestures and body movements) and to describe it verbally so that adequate mental images are activated.

The goal of the project is to organize the Third workshop on audio description and to conduct a pilot study with material from audio description of film performances.

A third workshop on Audio description was organized by Jana Holsanova and Cecilia Wadensjö on March 6th 2014 in Stockholm. The program consisted of focus group discussions on recorded data from audio description of film performances and paper presentations about various aspects of AD.

Among the participants were researchers from cognitive science, linguistics, translation and interpreting science, professional interpreters in audio description, participants with visual impairment, trainers in audio description and representatives from government agencies and organizations working with disability issues (Swedish Braille Authority, Swedish Federation of Visually Impaired and Young Visually Impaired).