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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
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