The Enhancing Audio Description II project seeks to explore the potential of sound design practices and spatial audio to provide accessible film and television experiences for visually impaired audiences. It fuses audio technology and creativity to widen the notion of media accessibility and increase the quality and quantity of provision, providing cutting edge techniques to the UK cultural sector.
Enhancing Audio Description II: implementing accessible, personalised and inclusive film and television experiences for visually impaired audiences, is a project that proposes a new paradigm in accessible experiences, in which there is not an overreliance on a narrator's spoken word, as in traditional Audio Description practices. Instead it utilises new accessibility features that include: the addition of sound effects, the spatialisation of dialogue and sounding objects, and first-person narration, to provide accessible experiences that are seamlessly integrated to the soundtrack of a film or television programme. These techniques are integrated into film and television workflows from the development phase up to final delivery.
The project builds up from previous research which demonstrated the success of these methods, and explores them even further, by concentrating on the conveyance of cinematographic elements through sound, the exploration of the intricacies of using first-person narration across different genres and different cast sizes, as well as exploring how spatialisation techniques can be adapted for multi-listener scenarios for a variety of loudspeaker formats. The exploration of these methods will be conducted with an end-user centred approach, in which visually impaired audiences are consulted from the design process up to delivery. Furthermore, the project explores the creation of guidelines that will allow the incorporation of these methods to professional broadcasting pipelines and film workflows, by collaborating with a Project Advisory Panel representative of the different roles in film and television as well as end users.
If you are interested in receiving updates on the project you can subscribe to our mailing list.
We are excited to have had Ore doing an internship with us. In just a few weeks, she immersed herself deeply into our project as well as helped us with our impact case study. In this post, she sums up her experience. Find out more.
On 8 Mar 2022, Mariana held a seminar for the University of Salford titled Enhanced Audio Description – The Convergence of Sound Design and Accessibility. Find out more.
Last June, MySight York, the Enhancing Audio Description project (represented by Krisztián), and Jane Bateman teamed up to introduce the basics of audio interviewing and creating podcasts to a group of visually impaired participants. Find out more.
Mariana attended the Languages and the Media Conference in Berlin between 7th-9th November 2022 to deliver a pre-conference workshop and present a poster on the EAD project. Find out more.
Last June, we did two workshops with MySight York, a local organisation in York supporting visually impaired people. The first one was a whole day training session delivered by Vicky and Jade from MySight York. Find out more.
Our project has been nominated for an Inclusive Impact Award! Find out more.
Michael got the chance to help Mariana and Gavin with their Festival of Ideas talk last June. This post is a reflection on his experience. Find out more.
We are excited to announce that our project will be supporting a third internship during the first year of the 4 year project. In conjunction with and funded by Yorkshire Consortium for Equity in Doctoral Education (YCEDE), we have a further internship which is now open for undergraduate student applications from Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic backgrounds. Find out more.
We are delighted to tell you about a recent opportunity where Mariana and our project were featured in a series of accessibility segments on BBC World Service's Digital Planet, a weekly tech radio show. Find out more.
