Hello!
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.
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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.
Newsletter
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Blog
How can we combine touch and sound...
– as well as visual qualities – in interaction? A guest post by Emilie Giles. Find out more.
142nd International Audio Engineering Society Convention
On 20 May 2017 Mariana and Gavin gave a tutorial titled Using Binaural Audio to increase accessibility to Film and Television How Digital at the 142nd International AES Convention held in Berlin. Find out more.
Stereo vs binaural
Would you like to hear the difference between an binaural and a regular stereo soundtrack? Listen to these two audio clips from Pearl’s opening sequence. Find out more.
Binaural Listening Tests for Accessibility
Last month Lewis and Gavin tested binaural sound with 33 visually impaired participants. The two main objectives were to analyse participants’ difficulties in identifying the number of people in a scene and the perception of moving characters when listening over a pair of headphones and see whether alternative methods of audio mixing could reduce these difficulties. Find out more.
University of Westminster
On 21 March 2017 Mariana gave a talk at University of Westminster titled EAD - Digital Audio and Accessibility to Film and Television in which she discussed the concepts behind the project as well as initial findings.
The Space & BBC Academy Accessibility Workshop
On 20 April 2017 Mariana run a workshop titled How Digital Tools Can Help Make Arts More Accessible in Nottingham and participated in a discussions on Digital Tools which focuses on how digital innovations are helping make the arts more accessible. Find out more.
The Start of the AD movement in Scotland
An interview with Susan Gibson, an early supporter of live AD in Scotland. Find out more.
Queen’s University Belfast
On 13 March 2017 Mariana gave a seminar at Queen’s University Belfast titled EAD - Digital Audio and Accessibility to Film and Television, in which she discussed the concepts behind the project as well as initial findings. Find out more.
Conference News
We are thrilled to announce that we have confirmed Maria Oshodi, Director of Extant as a keynote speaker at our Conference on Accessibility in Film, Television and Interactive Media. Maria’s keynote will be followed by a demo of Flatland. Find out more.
‘Perception’ Game in the Pipeline
Game developer, Deep-End Games is funding their new horror video game, Perception, through Kickstarter. How is this game related to our Audio Description research? Find out more.
Exciting Projects On Accessibility Part 2
We have encountered too many interesting projects to fit into our last blog post on exciting projects, so here is part two. Find out more.
Staging Accessibility at the Theatre
Accessibility should take centre stage as a creative consideration at the theatre. Find out more.
Press Publication
On 23 February 2017, Disability Sports Network interviewed Mariana in their Speed of Sound programme.
Exciting Projects on Accessibility
Whilst working on the EAD project we’ve been impressed by lots of exciting research studies, which share our aim of promoting accessibility and social inclusion. Here are just a few of them. Find out more.
Daredevil
You may remember that back in August we conducted online/telephone surveys on current accessibility measures and hopes for the future of Audio Description. We received 127 responses which have been invaluable to our research – but what encouraged participants to respond? Find out more.
Want your voice to be heard? Surveys and the end user.
You may remember that back in August we conducted online/telephone surveys on current accessibility measures and hopes for the future of Audio Description. We received 127 responses which have been invaluable to our research – but what encouraged participants to respond? Find out more.
York Talks - Seeing With Our Ears
On 11 January 2017, at the York Talks – Research in the Spotlight event organised by the University of York, Mariana gave a presentation outlining our research progress. Find out more.
Disseminating the Project
I haven’t written a diary entry for a while and that’s mostly because I’ve been busy disseminating the Enhancing Audio Description project through talks in a series of events. Find out more.
Reproduced Sound 2016
On 15 November 2016, Mariana gave a presentation title Sound Design, Spatialisation and Accessibility in Film and Television at the Reproduced Sound 2016 – Sound with Pictures - Time is of Essence Conference. The event was held in Holiday Inn, Southampton. Find out more.
Language Transfer in Audiovisual Media Conference, Berlin
On 3 November 2016, Mariana gave a presentation at the 11th International Conference on Language Transfer in Audiovisual Media, Berlin. The title of the presentation was Towards a Framework for Enhanced Audio Description Find out more.
Jerry and Warren from CamSight
Some thoughts on our project from our advisory panel members, Jerry and Warren from Cam Sight, Cambridge. Find out more.
Cambridge Festival of Ideas
On 29 October 2016, at the Anglia Ruskin University, Mariana presented the project at the Cambridge Festival of Ideas. The presentation was titled Using Sound Design to Foster Inclusivity. Find out more.
AD, the Art of Access, London
On 21 October, the Marian gave a presentation at the Audio Description - the Art of Access Conference, in the Young Vic Theatre, London in Panel 2, The Aesthetics of Access. The presentation's title was Integrating Sound Design to Audio Description. Find out more.
More on Audio Games
Further to our previous blog post on Audio Games and Accessibility published last month, we have worked on preparing a video that describes in detail the different sound design methods used in the audio games Papa Sangre, The Nightjar and A Blind Legend. Find out more.
Celebrating 6 months of EAD
Since we launched our project in April 2016 we have had over 13,000 visits to this website from 31 countries, most from the UK and the US. 65% of our visitors found this website through referrals on social media, Twitter and Facebook, 23% by direct linking and 21% with organic searches for instance by using search engines like google.com with keywords ‘enhancing audio description’ or ‘audio description project’. We are thrilled that the interest in our project is growing and we hope to continue raising awareness on Audio Description and inclusivity in the coming months. Thanks!
Notes on Blindness
Back in June I had the pleasure of being invited to the screening of Notes on Blindness at Sheffield Doc Fest. I had watched the short documentary online a while back and was fascinated by the audio-visual aesthetics and the intriguing accounts in John Hull’s diaries, so…I didn’t hesitate to accept the invitation. Find out more.
On Audio Games and Accessibility
As part of our research on the use of sound design to make films and TV programmes inclusive, we have been looking into the field of Audio Games, that is, games in which audio is the main way of communication and entertainment and which can be played regardless of one’s sight condition. Find out more.
York Festival of Ideas
We have uploaded our first podcast which contains audio extracts from Mariana’s talk at York Festival of Ideas on June 13 2016. Find out more.
Survey and Focus Groups
As part of the first phase of Enhancing Audio Description we conducted an online/telephone survey as well as focus groups on current accessibility measures and the future of Audio Description. Find out more.
Participate
Our team carries out focus groups, interviews and other sessions on a regular basis. If you are visually impaired and are interested in participating you can sign up to our participants' mailing list below to find out about the opportunities available.