Cover not available
Article published In:
Target
Vol. 28:3 (2016) ► pp.424–444

Gains and losses of watching audio described films for sighted viewers

| Università degli Studi di Trieste

Audio description (AD) is a unique form of communication that guarantees access to audiovisual material for blind people through an additional verbal commentary that describes relevant visual cues. In spite of its original purpose and target audience, some scholars and some guidelines maintain that AD can be useful for other sectors of the population, and suggest that sighted viewers could usefully listen to AD when ‘watching’ a film with blind people. In order to determine whether AD affects the sighted viewer’s cognitive performance and appreciation of the film, and whether AD can be exploited as an integration tool allowing blind and sighted users to mingle when ‘watching’ a film, we assessed the effect of AD on sighted viewers (n = 125, 18-28 years) empirically. Results suggest that the addition of AD to films does not negatively affect the cognitive aspects of the viewing experience (i.e., general understanding and film scene recognition), nor does it dramatically affect its overall enjoyment, whereas listening to AD without the visuals poses some challenges to sighted viewers.

Keywords: audio description, blind, sighted, film, audiovisual translation, empirical, cognitive, evaluative, integration
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
    • 1.1AD and its benefits for VIPs
    • 1.2Potential extended uses of AD: the literature to date
    • 1.3Hypotheses and research questions
  • 2.An experiment on the effects of AD on sighted viewers
  • 3.Method
    • 3.1Participants
    • 3.2Materials
      • 3.2.1The audiovisual material
      • 3.2.2Questionnaires and tests
        • 3.2.2.1Cognitive measures
        • 3.2.2.2Evaluative measures
        • 3.2.2.3Questionnaire on AD
    • 3.3Design and procedure
  • 4.Results
    • 4.1Cognitive Measures
      • 4.1.1Gist comprehension
      • 4.1.2Recognition of visual details expressed verbally
      • 4.1.3Recognition of visual scenes
    • 4.2Evaluative measures
    • 4.3Questionnaire on AD
  • 5.General discussion and conclusions
  • Acknowledgements
  • Notes
  • References
Published online: 29 September 2016
DOI logo
https://doi.org/10.1075/target.28.3.04per
References (46)
ADLAB
2012 Report on User Needs Assessment. ADLAB Project (Audio Description: Lifelong Access to the Blind) Report no. 1. [URL]
ADP
(Audio Description Project) 2009 Audio Description Standards (July 2009): A Work in Progress. American Council of the Blind. [URL]
AENOR
2005 Norma Española UNE 153020. Audiodescripción para personas con discapacidad visual. Requisitos para la audiodescripción y elaboración de audioguías. Madrid: AENOR.Google Scholar
Brainerd, Charles J., and Valerie F. Reyna
2002 “Fuzzy-Trace Theory: Dual Processes in Memory, Reasoning, and Cognitive Neuroscience.” Advances in Child Development and Behavior 281: 41–100. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Braun, Sabine
2008 “Audiodescription Research: State of the Art and Beyond.” Translation Studies in the New Millennium 61:14–30.Google Scholar
Busarello, Eraldo
2013 “Cos’è la Cooperativa Senza Barriere Onlus.” Paper presented at the AD Day Seminar, University of Trieste, April 19, 2013.Google Scholar
Busarello, Eraldo, and Fabio Sordo
2011 Manuale per aspiranti audio descrittori di audiofilm per non vedenti. Scurelle (TN): Cooperativa Sociale Senza Barriere ONLUS.Google Scholar
Cronin, Barry J., and Sharon Robertson King
1990 “The Development of the Descriptive Video Service.” Journal of Visual Impairment and Blindness 84 (10): 503–506. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Dosch, Elmar, and Bernd Benecke
2004 Wenn aus Bildern Worte werden – Durch Audio Description zum Hörfilm. Munich: Bayerischer Rundfunk.Google Scholar
d’Ydewalle, Géry, and Wim De Bruycker
2007 “Eye Movements of Children and Adults While Reading Television Subtitles.” European Psychologist 121:196–205. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Frazier, Gregory
1975 The Autobiography of Miss Jane Pitman: An All-Audio Adaptation of the Teleplay for the Blind and Visually Handicapped. Unpublished MA thesis San Francisco State University.Google Scholar
Frazier, Gregory, and Ida Coutinho-Johnson
1995 The Effectiveness of Audio Description in Providing Access to Educational AV Media for Blind and Visually Impaired Students in High School. San Francisco: Audio Vision.Google Scholar
Fryer, Louise, and Jonathan Freeman
2012 “Presence in Those with and without Sight: Audio Description and its Potential for Virtual Reality Applications.” Journal of Cyber Therapy and Rehabilitation 5 (1): 15–23.Google Scholar
2013 “Cinematic Language and the Description of Film: Keeping AD Users in the Frame.” Perspectives: Studies in Translatology 21 (3): 412–426. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
2014 “Can You Feel What I’m Saying? The Impact of Verbal Information on Emotion Elicitation and Presence in People with a Visual Impairment.” In Challenging Presence: Proceedings of the 15th International Conference on Presence, ed. by Anna Felnhofer, and Oswald D. Kothgassner, 99-107. Wien: facultas.wuv.Google Scholar
Grimes, Tom
1991 “Mild Auditory-Visual Dissonance in Television News May Exceed Viewer Attentional Capacity.” Human Communication Research 18 (2): 268–298. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Guichon, Nicolas, and Sinead McLornan
2008 “The Effects of Multimodality on L2 Learners: Implications for CALL Resource Design.” System 36 (1): 85–93. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Jakobson, Roman
(1959) 2000 “On Linguistic Aspects of Translation.” In The Translation Studies Reader, ed. by Lawrence Venuti, 113-118. London: Routledge.Google Scholar
Koolstra, Cees M., Allard L. Peeters, and Herman Spinhof
2002 “The Pros and Cons of Dubbing and Subtitling.” European Journal of Communication 171: 325–354. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Krejtz, Izabela, Agnieszka Szarkowska, Krzysztof Krejtz, Agnieszka Walczak, and Andrew Duchowski
2012 “Audio Description as an Aural Guide of Children’s Visual Attention: Evidence from an Eye-Tracking Study.” In ETRA ‘12, Proceedings of the Symposium on Eye Tracking Research and Applications, 99-106. New York: ACM. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Krejtz, Krzysztof, Izabela Krejtz, Andrew Duchowski, Agnieszka Szarkowska, and Agnieszka Walczak
2012 “Multimodal Learning with Audio Description: An Eye Tracking Study of Children’s Gaze during a Visual Recognition Task.” In Proceedings of the ACM Symposium on Applied Perception (SAP ‘12), 83-90. New York: ACA. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Lang, Annie
1995 “Defining Audio/Video Redundancy from a Limited Capacity Information Processing Perspective.” Communication Research 221:86–115. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Lang, Annie, Satoko Kurita, Ya Gao, and Bridget Rubenking
2013 “Measuring Television Message Complexity as Available Processing Resources: Dimensions of Information and Cognitive Load.” Media Psychology 16 (2): 129–153. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Lang, Annie, Shuhua Zhou, Nancy Schwartz, Paul D. Bolls, and Robert F. Potter
2000 “The Effects of Edits on Arousal, Attention, and Memory for Television Messages: When an Edit is an Edit Can an Edit be too Much?” Journal of Broadcasting and Electronic Media 44 (1): 94–109. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Lavaur, Jean-Marc, and Dominique Bairstow
2011 “Languages on the Screen: Is Film Comprehension Related to Viewers’ Fluency Level and to the Language in the Subtitles?” International Journal of Psychology 461: 455–462. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Morisset, Laure, and Frédéric Gonant
2008 La charte de l’audiodescription. [URL]
New Media Consortium
2005 The Horizon Report. S.l.: The New Media Consortium. [URL]
Ofcom
2010 Code on Television Access Services. London: Ofcom. [URL]
Packer, Jaclyn
1996 “Video Description in North America.” In New Technologies in the Education of the Visually Handicapped, ed. by Dominique Berger, 103-107. Montrouge: John Libbey Eurotext.Google Scholar
Paivio, Allan
1986 Mental Representations: A Dual Coding Approach. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Peli, Eli, Elisabeth M. Fine, and Angela T. Labianca
1996 “Evaluating Visual Information Provided by Audio Description.” Journal of Visual Impairment and Blindness 90 (5): 378–385. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Perego, Elisa, Fabio Del Missier, Marco Porta, and Mauro Mosconi
2010 “The Cognitive Effectiveness of Subtitle Processing.” Media Psychology 13 (3): 243–272. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Perego, Elisa, Fabio Del Missier, and Sara Bottiroli
2015 “Dubbing and Subtitling in Young and Older Adults: Cognitive and Evaluative Aspects.” Perspectives: Studies in Translatology 23 (1): 1–21. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Piety, Philip J.
2003 Audio Description: A Visual Assistive Discourse. Unpublished thesis Georgetown University, Washington, DC.Google Scholar
Piety, Philip J.
2004 “The Language System of Audio Description. An Investigation as a Discursive Process.” Journal of Visual Impairment and Blindness 98 (8): 453–469. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Rai, Sonali, Joan Greening, and Leen Petré
2010 A Comparative Study of Audio Description Guidelines Prevalent in Different Countries. London: Media and Culture Department, Royal National Institute of Blind People (RNIB).Google Scholar
Remael, Aline, and Gert Vercauteren
2011 Basisprincipes voor audiobeschrijving voor televisie en film [Basics of audio description for television and film]. Antwerp: Departement Vertalers and Tolken, Artesis Hogeschool.Google Scholar
Remael, Aline, Nina Reviers, and Gert Vercauteren eds
2015 Pictures Painted in Words: ADLAB Audio Description Guidelines. Trieste: EUT. [URL]
Reyna, Valerie F., and Charles J. Brainerd
1995 “Fuzzy-Trace Theory: An Interim Synthesis.” Learning and Individual Differences 7 (1): l-75. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Salway, Andrew
2007 “A Corpus-Based Analysis of Audio Description.” In Media for All. Subtitling for the Deaf, Audio Description, and Sign Language, ed. by Jorge Díaz-Cintas, Pilar Orero, and Aline Remael, 151-174. Amsterdam: Rodopi. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Schmeidler, Emilie, and Corinne Kirchner
2001 “Adding Audio Description: Does it Make a Difference?” Journal of Visual Impairment and Blindness 95 (4): 197–212. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Snyder, Joel
2007 “Audio Description: The Visual Made Verbal.” International Journal of the Arts in Society 21: 99–104.Google Scholar
Szarkowska, Agnieszka, Izabela Krejtz, Krzysztof Krejtz, and Andrew Duchowski
2013 “Harnessing the Potential of Eye-Tracking for Media Accessibility.” In Translation Studies and Eye-Tracking Analysis, ed. by Sambor Grucza, Monika Płużyczka, and Justyna Zając, 153-183. Frankfurt: Peter Lang.Google Scholar
Thomas, Angela
2007 Youth Online: Identity and Literacy in the Digital Age. New York: Peter Lang.Google Scholar
Wissmath, Bartholomäus, David Weibel, and Rudolf David
2009 “Dubbing or Subtitling? Effects on Spatial Presence, Transportation, Flow, and Enjoyment.” Journal of Media Psychology 211: 114–125. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Zubek, John P. ed.
1969 Sensory Deprivation: Fifteen Years of Research. New York: Appleton Century Crofts.Google Scholar
Cited by (5)

Cited by 5 other publications

Han, Tengda, Max Bain, Arsha Nagrani, Gül Varol, Weidi Xie & Andrew Zisserman
2023. 2023 IEEE/CVF International Conference on Computer Vision (ICCV), ► pp. 13599 ff. DOI logo
OKYAYUZ, Şirin
2021. Altyazı Çevirisinde Teknoloji Destekli Yaratıcılık Açılımı. Çeviribilim ve Uygulamaları Dergisi 2021:30 ► pp. 108 ff. DOI logo
Wang, Yujia, Wei Liang, Haikun Huang, Yongqi Zhang, Dingzeyu Li & Lap-Fai Yu
2021. Proceedings of the 2021 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems, ► pp. 1 ff. DOI logo
BOZKURT, Sinem & Şirin OKYAYUZ
2020. Türkiye’de Sağır ve İşitme Engelli Çocuklar için Ayrıntılı Altyazı Çevirisi Hakkında Bir Araştırma: Uygulamada Sadeleştirme. Çeviribilim ve Uygulamaları Dergisi :29 ► pp. 139 ff. DOI logo
Szarkowska, Agnieszka & Olivia Gerber-Morón
2019. Two or three lines: a mixed-methods study on subtitle processing and preferences. Perspectives 27:1 ► pp. 144 ff. DOI logo

This list is based on CrossRef data as of 10 july 2024. Please note that it may not be complete. Sources presented here have been supplied by the respective publishers. Any errors therein should be reported to them.