At the 144th Audio Engineering Conference held between 23rd-26th May 2018, Mariana and Gavin presented a tutorial titled From Seeing to Hearing - Sound Design and Spatialization for Visually Impaired Film Audiences. Find out more.
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.
In this episode Mariana interviewed Professor Hannah Thompson, a partially blind academic and activist whose work focuses on the intersections between critical disability studies and French studies. Find out more.
In this episode Mariana interviewed Michelle Duxbury, who challenges traditional art hierarchies by exploring identity, body & landscape through embroidery, film & installation, as a disabled/neurodivergent, and multidisciplinary artist from a working-class background. Find out more.
In this episode Mariana interviewed Ana Tamayo, whose research focuses on audiovisual translation and accessibility in different modalities, and specifically on media accessibility and minoritised languages, mostly Basque and sign languages. Find out more.
In this episode Mariana interviewed Jonathan Penny, who currently oversees the delivery of subtitles, audio description and signed content for Channel 4's linear and on-demand platforms. Find out more.
In this episode Mariana interviewed Elle Chante, a UK based musician exploring the reality of complex mental health and disability into her work. Find out more.
In this episode Mariana interviewed Dr. Samantha Moore an animator and researcher with an interest in documentary, science and art, practice as research. Find out more.
In this episode Mariana interviewed Dr. Kulnaree Sueroj, who has recently graduated with a PhD from the School of Arts and Creative Technologies at the University of York. Find out more.
In this episode, Mariana interviewed Amelia Cavallo, a blind, USA-born theatre practitioner, academic, and workshop facilitator who works as a multidisciplinary performer, musical director, lecturer, and consultant on access and audio description. Find out more.
In this episode, Mariana interviewed Maria Oshodi whose work is experimental, intersectional, and pushes the artistic and aesthetic boundaries between experience, identity and place. She founded Britain’s leading performing arts company of visually impaired artists Extant and collaborates with other artists, freelancing on a number of independent arts projects. Find out more.
In this episode Mariana interviewed Dr Anna Bramwell-Dicks, interdisciplinary lecturer in Interactive Media within the School of Arts and Creative Technologies. Find out more.
In this episode Mariana interviewed Joseph Inman, a film director working in Cornwall, director of Spines. Find out more.
We're pleased to introduce our new podcast, DARCI, which stands for Disability, Accessibility, and Representation in the Creative Industries. Our first episode is a brief introduction to what we hope DARCI will achieve and to what our team members have been working on. Find out more.
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.
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.
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.
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.
In this post, you can watch our short film Shelf Life and read about why we made it. Find out more.
Director of Production at ITV
Coming soon...
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.
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!
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
You can listen to the presentation Olivia and Agnieszka gave at our conference, in our 7th podcast, titled What Makes a Good Subtitle? - Understanding People’s Views on Subtitling Quality. Find out more.
You can listen to the presentation Maria gave at our conference, in our 6th podcast, titled A Brief History of Integrating Description in Theatre by Visually Impaired Artists. Find out more.
You can listen to Kerr's presentation at our conference, in our 5th podcast, titled An Audio Art Form - Accessing the Visual of TV with Audio Description. We uploaded the pod under his previously published interview. Find out more.
You can listen to the presentation Lauren gave at our conference in our 4th podcast titled Television Dialogue; Balancing Audibility, Attention and Accessibility. Find out more.
We haven’t had a blog post for a while, but we are now back with some news, a new podcast and some reflections from Mariana! Find out more.
On the weekend of 14-15 October we held our our first conference at the University of York. The event sought to promote communication between researchers, stakeholders in the creative industries, accessibility services, and audiences. Find out more.
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.
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.
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.
– as well as visual qualities – in interaction? A guest post by Emilie Giles. Find out more.
Mariana's talk titled 'On Roses and More... reflections on inclusion in sound design practices' for the Women in Research Network now is available online. In her presentation she shared insights from her personal journey of inclusion and exclusion, alongside our innovative EAD research. Find out more.
On the 18th of May 2024 the Enhancing Audio Description team headed to Edinburgh to host a one-day symposium at Dovecot Studios focused on discussions and reflections on accessibility in relation to different creative areas, including music, dance and filmmaking. Find out more.
We are delighted to announce that Painting with Sound will be part of our symposium, an audio and visual landscape work by Keith Salmon, Graham Byron & Drew Kirkland. Find out more.
We are delighted to announce Amble Skuse, one of our symposium speakers in Edinburg this May. This post features the abstract of her presentation and her bio. Find out more.
Enhanced Audio Description (EAD): what it is, how it works and why it matters Find out more.
We are delighted to announce Aby Watson, one of our symposium speakers in Edinburg this May. This post features the abstract of her presentation and her bio. Find out more.
We are delighted to announce Sonia Allori, another one of our symposium speakers in Edinburg this May. This post features the abstract of her presentation and her bio. Find out more.
We are delighted to announce Emily Beaney, one of our symposium speakers in Edinburg this May. This post features the abstract of her presentation and her bio. Find out more.
On 6th December 2023 Mariana had the pleasure of being invited to join a panel organised by Suzie Cloves from Manchester Metropolitan University. Find out more.
We are delighted to announce that in September 2025 we will be hosting the Conference on Disability, Accessibility and Representation in the Creative Industries (DARCI) at the University of York (UK). Find out more.
The EAD team is delighted to announce the symposium 'Removing barriers: disability and accessibility in the creative sector' taking place in Edinburgh on Saturday 18th May 2024. Find out more.
Congratulations to the Visible Mending Team on their BAFTA Nomination! Find out more.
In December 2023 we hosted our annual Advisory Board Meeting online, an opportunity to update our board on what we’ve been up to as well as seek advice on ways forward. Find out more.
Last September, Michael got the chance to present some of our research from the EAD project at the Immersive and 3D Audio conference, at Bologna Italy. Find out more.
Discussion on accessible filmmaking within the context of the EAD methods. Find out more.
Last July, Mariana had the challenge, but great satisfaction, of being able to present on the Enhanced Audio Description (EAD) methods at two international conferences in one week. 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.
On 15 June 2022, between 6pm to 7pm, Mariana and Gavin presented our work at the York Festival of Ideas at the University of York. Find out more.
On 27 April 2022, Mariana gave a talk titled Enhanced Audio Description - Sound, Design, Creativity and Integrated Access at the Leeds School of Arts, now archived on YouTube. Find out more.
Mariana gave a guest lecture for Edinburgh Napier University in March titled Enhanced Audio Description - Creative Accessibility through Sound Design.
On 22 February 2022, Mariana gave a talk titled 'Accessibility through Sound Design; an introduction to Enhanced Audio Description' at the Perth Web Accessibility Camp 2022 event. Find out more.
On 25 Oct 2020, Mariana gave a presentation at BBC Sounds Amazing - Celebrating Innovation in Audio. Find out more.
On 7 Oct 2020, Mariana was invited to give an online presentation on the project at the Digital Television Group (DTG) Summit, in the Next-Generation Audio and Accessibility session.
On 28 May 2020, Mariana gave a presentation titled EAD; Integrated Access, Sound Design and Binaural Audio at the Evolving Access Services - Content for All, Television for All online event organised by the DTG Accessibility Group. Find out more.
On 26 Feb 2020, Mariana gave a presentation titled EAD; Towards Accessible Creative Experiences in Film and Television at Brunel University, London.
Back in May, I had the honour to be invited to give a short introductory speech as part of the Associazione Premio Eleanor Worthington International Exhibition on Art and Disability that took place at York St. John University in York (UK). Find out more.
We haven’t published a post since March so we thought it was time we updated you on what we’ve been up to. Find out more.
On 7 Jun 2018, Mariana presented Shelf Life - Incorporating Accessibility to Sound Design at at the Kling Gut symposium, Hamburg. In this presentation she talked about the development of the short film Shelf Life as well as premiered the film. Find out more.
For more information on Shelf Life please visit this page.
On 11 Sep 2018, Mariana was invited to give a presentation at the ‘Listen Up! Developments in Next Generation Audio’ Sky Tech Summit in London.
On 2 May 2018, Mariana and Gavin were invited to exhibit at the Sounds Amazing BBC Conference in London.
It’s been a while since we published a blog post, mostly because we’ve been busy giving talks, creating podcasts and writing up the results of the project. On top of that we also made a short film entitled ‘Shelf Life’! Find out more.
On 24 May 2018, Mariana and Gavin presented the concepts, processes, and results linked to the project at the 144th AES Convention in Milan. The title of the presentation was From Seeing to Hearing - Sound Design and Spatialization for Visually Impaired Film Audiences. Find out more.
On 23 Mar 2018, Mariana presented her paper Seeing With Our Ears - Designing Soundtracks For Visually Impaired Audiences at the Seeing Sound. Seeing Sound was an informal practice-led symposium, at University of Bath Spa, exploring multimedia work which foregrounds the relationship between sound and image. It explores areas such as visual music, abstract cinema, experimental animation, audiovisual performance and installation practice through paper sessions, screenings, performances and installations. Find out more.
On 7 Feb 2018, at King's College London, Mariana (then elected chair) gave a public lecture after the annual meeting. The meeting was followed by a social at the Shakespeare’s Head in Holbourn. Find out more.
You can listen to the presentation Olivia and Agnieszka gave at our conference, in our 7th podcast, titled What Makes a Good Subtitle? - Understanding People’s Views on Subtitling Quality. Find out more.
You can listen to the presentation Maria gave at our conference, in our 6th podcast, titled A Brief History of Integrating Description in Theatre by Visually Impaired Artists. Find out more.
You can listen to Kerr's presentation at our conference, in our 5th podcast, titled An Audio Art Form - Accessing the Visual of TV with Audio Description. We uploaded the pod under his previously published interview. Find out more.
You can listen to the presentation Lauren gave at our conference in our 4th podcast titled Television Dialogue; Balancing Audibility, Attention and Accessibility. Find out more.
On 3 Nov 2017, at the Sound Talking event held in the London Science Museum, Mariana gave a talk titled The language of Sound - Creating Accessible Film Experiences For Visually Impaired Audiences. Find out more.
We haven’t had a blog post for a while, but we are now back with some news, a new podcast and some reflections from Mariana! Find out more.
On the weekend of 14-15 October we held our our first conference at the University of York. The event sought to promote communication between researchers, stakeholders in the creative industries, accessibility services, and audiences. Find out more.
On 23 Sep 2017 we hosted a digital exhibition in the TATE Britain, London to showcase the research of the project into how sound design techniques can be used to rethink accessibility to film and television for visually impaired audiences. Find out more.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
On June 13 2016, Mariana and Gavin presented the project at the University of York's Department of Theatre, Film and Television. The presentation was titled Seeing with your Ears - Film and Television for Visually Impaired Audiences. Find out more.
On the 13 July we traveled to London’s OXO Gallery to attend the first day of the Dialogue Beyond Sight (DBS) event. DBS is a multi-sensory exhibition featuring works by visually impaired artists and performers. Find out more.
At the 144th Audio Engineering Conference held between 23rd-26th May 2018, Mariana and Gavin presented a tutorial titled From Seeing to Hearing - Sound Design and Spatialization for Visually Impaired Film Audiences. Find out more.
On the 13 July we traveled to London’s OXO Gallery to attend the first day of the Dialogue Beyond Sight (DBS) event. DBS is a multi-sensory exhibition featuring works by visually impaired artists and performers. Find out more.
Delve into the journey of Spines, the first BFI Network-funded film to be written, directed, and starring an autistic person. Find out more.
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.
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.
We're excited to offer an internship opportunity titled 'Creative and Accessible Content Creation', focused on working to develop creative and accessible content to promote the EAD methods. 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 announce that our project will be supporting a number of internships throughout the course of the 4 year project. The initial two internships are now being advertised to students across the University of York and are currently open for applications! Find out more.
An interview with Susan Gibson, an early supporter of live AD in Scotland. Find out more.
We're excited to offer an internship opportunity titled 'Creative and Accessible Content Creation', focused on working to develop creative and accessible content to promote the EAD methods. Find out more.
We are excited to have had Jerome doing an internship through us. In this post he sums up his experience delving into the intricacies of sound mixing for high-budget films and TV with the London based Formosa Group. Find out more.
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.
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 announce that our project will be supporting a number of internships throughout the course of the 4 year project. The initial two internships are now being advertised to students across the University of York and are currently open for applications! Find out more.
Mariana had the pleasure of being interviewed by Ben Reichstein on his captivating podcast, Field & Foley. Find out more.
An interview with Susan Gibson, an early supporter of live AD in Scotland. Find out more.
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.
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.
In this episode Mariana interviewed Professor Hannah Thompson, a partially blind academic and activist whose work focuses on the intersections between critical disability studies and French studies. Find out more.
In this interview, Mariana discusses her experiences as a woman in a male-dominated field, sharing tips on creating inclusivity, work-life balance, and prioritizing wellbeing. Find out more.
In this episode Mariana interviewed Michelle Duxbury, who challenges traditional art hierarchies by exploring identity, body & landscape through embroidery, film & installation, as a disabled/neurodivergent, and multidisciplinary artist from a working-class background. Find out more.
In this episode Mariana interviewed Ana Tamayo, whose research focuses on audiovisual translation and accessibility in different modalities, and specifically on media accessibility and minoritised languages, mostly Basque and sign languages. Find out more.
The EAD methods featured in The Mix Room with Genelec podcast. Find out more.
In this episode Mariana interviewed Jonathan Penny, who currently oversees the delivery of subtitles, audio description and signed content for Channel 4's linear and on-demand platforms. Find out more.
Mariana's talk titled 'On Roses and More... reflections on inclusion in sound design practices' for the Women in Research Network now is available online. In her presentation she shared insights from her personal journey of inclusion and exclusion, alongside our innovative EAD research. Find out more.
In this episode Mariana interviewed Elle Chante, a UK based musician exploring the reality of complex mental health and disability into her work. Find out more.
In this episode Mariana interviewed Dr. Samantha Moore an animator and researcher with an interest in documentary, science and art, practice as research. Find out more.
In this episode Mariana interviewed Dr. Kulnaree Sueroj, who has recently graduated with a PhD from the School of Arts and Creative Technologies at the University of York. Find out more.
In this episode, Mariana interviewed Amelia Cavallo, a blind, USA-born theatre practitioner, academic, and workshop facilitator who works as a multidisciplinary performer, musical director, lecturer, and consultant on access and audio description. Find out more.
In this episode, Mariana interviewed Maria Oshodi whose work is experimental, intersectional, and pushes the artistic and aesthetic boundaries between experience, identity and place. She founded Britain’s leading performing arts company of visually impaired artists Extant and collaborates with other artists, freelancing on a number of independent arts projects. Find out more.
In this episode Mariana interviewed Dr Anna Bramwell-Dicks, interdisciplinary lecturer in Interactive Media within the School of Arts and Creative Technologies. Find out more.
In this episode Mariana interviewed Joseph Inman, a film director working in Cornwall, director of Spines. Find out more.
Congratulations to the Visible Mending Team on their BAFTA Nomination! Find out more.
We're pleased to introduce our new podcast, DARCI, which stands for Disability, Accessibility, and Representation in the Creative Industries. Our first episode is a brief introduction to what we hope DARCI will achieve and to what our team members have been working on. Find out more.
Mariana had the pleasure of being interviewed by Ben Reichstein on his captivating podcast, Field & Foley. Find out more.
On 27 April 2022, Mariana gave a talk titled Enhanced Audio Description - Sound, Design, Creativity and Integrated Access at the Leeds School of Arts, now archived on YouTube. Find out more.
In this post, you can watch our short film Shelf Life and read about why we made it. Find out more.
Pearl is a short film (Palumbo, 2014) whose soundtrack was redesigned as part of our project in 2016. The soundtrack uses the EAD principles to provide an accessible experience for visually impaired audiences, that is based on creative sound design practices, including binaural audio and first person narration. Find out more.
On 25 Oct 2020, Mariana gave a presentation at BBC Sounds Amazing - Celebrating Innovation in Audio. Find out more.
On 7 Feb 2018, at King's College London, Mariana (then elected chair) gave a public lecture after the annual meeting. The meeting was followed by a social at the Shakespeare’s Head in Holbourn. Find out more.
You can listen to the presentation Olivia and Agnieszka gave at our conference, in our 7th podcast, titled What Makes a Good Subtitle? - Understanding People’s Views on Subtitling Quality. Find out more.
You can listen to the presentation Maria gave at our conference, in our 6th podcast, titled A Brief History of Integrating Description in Theatre by Visually Impaired Artists. Find out more.
You can listen to Kerr's presentation at our conference, in our 5th podcast, titled An Audio Art Form - Accessing the Visual of TV with Audio Description. We uploaded the pod under his previously published interview. Find out more.
You can listen to the presentation Lauren gave at our conference in our 4th podcast titled Television Dialogue; Balancing Audibility, Attention and Accessibility. Find out more.
We haven’t had a blog post for a while, but we are now back with some news, a new podcast and some reflections from Mariana! Find out more.
On 23 Sep 2017 we hosted a digital exhibition in the TATE Britain, London to showcase the research of the project into how sound design techniques can be used to rethink accessibility to film and television for visually impaired audiences. Find out more.
In this post you can see and hear our first video trailer for the project featuring Mariana, Gavin, Warren and Maxine. Find out more.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Pearl is a short film (Palumbo, 2014) whose soundtrack was redesigned as part of our project in 2016. The soundtrack uses the EAD principles to provide an accessible experience for visually impaired audiences, that is based on creative sound design practices, including binaural audio and first person narration. Find out more.
Dr. Monika Zabrocka continues outlining her research with Mariana at our university's School of Arts and Creative Technologies. Find out more.
In this post, Dr Monika Zabrocka, a visiting researcher in the School of Arts and Creative Technologies (University of York) summarises her work and how it is connected to our EAD project. Find out more.
Andre Louis is a musician, lover of all-things technology, self-proclaimed geek and loves trying out new gear whenever he can get a hold of it. Find out more.
On the 13 July we traveled to London’s OXO Gallery to attend the first day of the Dialogue Beyond Sight (DBS) event. DBS is a multi-sensory exhibition featuring works by visually impaired artists and performers. Find out more.
In this episode Mariana interviewed Professor Hannah Thompson, a partially blind academic and activist whose work focuses on the intersections between critical disability studies and French studies. Find out more.
In this interview, Mariana discusses her experiences as a woman in a male-dominated field, sharing tips on creating inclusivity, work-life balance, and prioritizing wellbeing. Find out more.
In this episode Mariana interviewed Michelle Duxbury, who challenges traditional art hierarchies by exploring identity, body & landscape through embroidery, film & installation, as a disabled/neurodivergent, and multidisciplinary artist from a working-class background. Find out more.
In this episode Mariana interviewed Ana Tamayo, whose research focuses on audiovisual translation and accessibility in different modalities, and specifically on media accessibility and minoritised languages, mostly Basque and sign languages. Find out more.
The EAD methods featured in The Mix Room with Genelec podcast. Find out more.
In this episode Mariana interviewed Jonathan Penny, who currently oversees the delivery of subtitles, audio description and signed content for Channel 4's linear and on-demand platforms. Find out more.
In this episode Mariana interviewed Elle Chante, a UK based musician exploring the reality of complex mental health and disability into her work. Find out more.
In this episode Mariana interviewed Dr. Samantha Moore an animator and researcher with an interest in documentary, science and art, practice as research. Find out more.
In this episode Mariana interviewed Dr. Kulnaree Sueroj, who has recently graduated with a PhD from the School of Arts and Creative Technologies at the University of York. Find out more.
In this episode, Mariana interviewed Amelia Cavallo, a blind, USA-born theatre practitioner, academic, and workshop facilitator who works as a multidisciplinary performer, musical director, lecturer, and consultant on access and audio description. Find out more.
In this episode, Mariana interviewed Maria Oshodi whose work is experimental, intersectional, and pushes the artistic and aesthetic boundaries between experience, identity and place. She founded Britain’s leading performing arts company of visually impaired artists Extant and collaborates with other artists, freelancing on a number of independent arts projects. Find out more.
In this episode Mariana interviewed Dr Anna Bramwell-Dicks, interdisciplinary lecturer in Interactive Media within the School of Arts and Creative Technologies. Find out more.
In this episode Mariana interviewed Joseph Inman, a film director working in Cornwall, director of Spines. Find out more.
We're pleased to introduce our new podcast, DARCI, which stands for Disability, Accessibility, and Representation in the Creative Industries. Our first episode is a brief introduction to what we hope DARCI will achieve and to what our team members have been working on. Find out more.
Mariana had the pleasure of being interviewed by Ben Reichstein on his captivating podcast, Field & Foley. Find out more.
You can listen to the presentation Olivia and Agnieszka gave at our conference, in our 7th podcast, titled What Makes a Good Subtitle? - Understanding People’s Views on Subtitling Quality. Find out more.
You can listen to the presentation Maria gave at our conference, in our 6th podcast, titled A Brief History of Integrating Description in Theatre by Visually Impaired Artists. Find out more.
You can listen to Kerr's presentation at our conference, in our 5th podcast, titled An Audio Art Form - Accessing the Visual of TV with Audio Description. We uploaded the pod under his previously published interview. Find out more.
You can listen to the presentation Lauren gave at our conference in our 4th podcast titled Television Dialogue; Balancing Audibility, Attention and Accessibility. Find out more.
We haven’t had a blog post for a while, but we are now back with some news, a new podcast and some reflections from Mariana! Find out more.
On 23 Sep 2017 we hosted a digital exhibition in the TATE Britain, London to showcase the research of the project into how sound design techniques can be used to rethink accessibility to film and television for visually impaired audiences. Find out more.
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.
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.
On 7 Jun 2018, Mariana presented Shelf Life - Incorporating Accessibility to Sound Design at at the Kling Gut symposium, Hamburg. In this presentation she talked about the development of the short film Shelf Life as well as premiered the film. Find out more.
For more information on Shelf Life please visit this page.
On 24 May 2018, Mariana and Gavin presented the concepts, processes, and results linked to the project at the 144th AES Convention in Milan. The title of the presentation was From Seeing to Hearing - Sound Design and Spatialization for Visually Impaired Film Audiences. Find out more.
On 23 Mar 2018, Mariana presented her paper Seeing With Our Ears - Designing Soundtracks For Visually Impaired Audiences at the Seeing Sound. Seeing Sound was an informal practice-led symposium, at University of Bath Spa, exploring multimedia work which foregrounds the relationship between sound and image. It explores areas such as visual music, abstract cinema, experimental animation, audiovisual performance and installation practice through paper sessions, screenings, performances and installations. Find out more.
On 7 Feb 2018, at King's College London, Mariana (then elected chair) gave a public lecture after the annual meeting. The meeting was followed by a social at the Shakespeare’s Head in Holbourn. Find out more.
On 3 Nov 2017, at the Sound Talking event held in the London Science Museum, Mariana gave a talk titled The language of Sound - Creating Accessible Film Experiences For Visually Impaired Audiences. Find out more.
On 23 Sep 2017 we hosted a digital exhibition in the TATE Britain, London to showcase the research of the project into how sound design techniques can be used to rethink accessibility to film and television for visually impaired audiences. Find out more.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
On June 13 2016, Mariana and Gavin presented the project at the University of York's Department of Theatre, Film and Television. The presentation was titled Seeing with your Ears - Film and Television for Visually Impaired Audiences. Find out more.
At the 144th Audio Engineering Conference held between 23rd-26th May 2018, Mariana and Gavin presented a tutorial titled From Seeing to Hearing - Sound Design and Spatialization for Visually Impaired Film Audiences. Find out more.
In this interview, Mariana discusses her experiences as a woman in a male-dominated field, sharing tips on creating inclusivity, work-life balance, and prioritizing wellbeing. Find out more.
The EAD methods featured in The Mix Room with Genelec podcast. Find out more.
Mariana's talk titled 'On Roses and More... reflections on inclusion in sound design practices' for the Women in Research Network now is available online. In her presentation she shared insights from her personal journey of inclusion and exclusion, alongside our innovative EAD research. Find out more.
Mariana had the pleasure of being interviewed by Ben Reichstein on his captivating podcast, Field & Foley. 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.
On 29 March 2022, Fern Lulham discussed our project on BBC Radio 4 on the In Touch programme. The programme also inserted sections of the interview she did with Mariana for Digital Planet last November and an extract from Pearl. Find out more.
On 08 February 2022, the interview Mariana recently did for BBC World Service's Digital Planet radio show was broadcast. The interview starts 21 minutes in. Find out more.
On 20 December 2021, the new blog titled AUDIO DESCRIPTION, Research and Practice by Michael Achtman launched with an article featuring our project. Find out more.
On 18 November 2021, RNIB Connect Radio interviewed Mariana in their 1023th episode titled The Future of Audio Description? Find out more.
On 1 November 2021, Tech Explore published an article featuring our project titled Researchers Develop New Methods to Enhance Film Experience for Visually Impaired. audiences. Find out more.
On 1 November 2021, Tech Explore published an article featuring our project titled Researchers Develop New Methods to Enhance Film Experience for Visually Impaired. audiences. Find out more.
On 1 November 2021, News Update published an article featuring our project titled Researchers Develop New Methods to Enhance Film Experience for Visually Impaired. audiences. Find out more.
On 29 November 2017, the Independent published Mariana's article titled How a New Technology Will Help Blind People 'See' at the Cinema. Find out more.
On 22 November 2017, The Conversation published Mariana's article titled How Our New Technology Will Help Blind People ‘See’ at the Cinema. Find out more.
On 11 November 2017, Disability Arts Online published Mariana's article titled Audio Description - An Art Form In Its Own Right. Find out more.
On 23 February 2017, Disability Sports Network interviewed Mariana in their Speed of Sound programme.
On 24 February 2015, BBC Radio 4 interviewed Mariana in their programme titled Audio in Films; ‘Visual Tinnitus’ online. Find out more.
On 04 February 2015, Insight Radio, the radio station of RNIB, in its Afternoon Edition introduced our project to their audience.
On 01 January 2015, BBC News Technology published an article featuring our project. Find out more.
On 28 January 2015, BBC Radio Cambridgeshire, in the The Dotty McLeod Breakfast Show introduced our project to their audience.
In January 2015, Developments in Cinema Technology for Visually Impaired Audiences (DOCET) in their Optometric Quarterly published a podcast featuring Mariana and Dr Susan Blakeney. Find out more.
We haven’t had a blog post for a while, but we are now back with some news, a new podcast and some reflections from Mariana! Find out more.
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.
Some thoughts on our project from our advisory panel members, Jerry and Warren from Cam Sight, Cambridge. Find out more.
It’s been a while since we published a blog post, mostly because we’ve been busy giving talks, creating podcasts and writing up the results of the project. On top of that we also made a short film entitled ‘Shelf Life’! Find out more.
Director of Production at ITV
Coming soon...
An interview with Susan Gibson, an early supporter of live AD in Scotland. Find out more.
Accessibility should take centre stage as a creative consideration at the theatre. Find out more.
Mariana's talk titled 'On Roses and More... reflections on inclusion in sound design practices' for the Women in Research Network now is available online. In her presentation she shared insights from her personal journey of inclusion and exclusion, alongside our innovative EAD research. Find out more.
Congratulations to the Visible Mending Team on their BAFTA Nomination! Find out more.
On 27 April 2022, Mariana gave a talk titled Enhanced Audio Description - Sound, Design, Creativity and Integrated Access at the Leeds School of Arts, now archived on YouTube. Find out more.
In this post, you can watch our short film Shelf Life and read about why we made it. Find out more.
Pearl is a short film (Palumbo, 2014) whose soundtrack was redesigned as part of our project in 2016. The soundtrack uses the EAD principles to provide an accessible experience for visually impaired audiences, that is based on creative sound design practices, including binaural audio and first person narration. Find out more.
On 25 Oct 2020, Mariana gave a presentation at BBC Sounds Amazing - Celebrating Innovation in Audio. Find out more.
On 7 Feb 2018, at King's College London, Mariana (then elected chair) gave a public lecture after the annual meeting. The meeting was followed by a social at the Shakespeare’s Head in Holbourn. Find out more.
In this post you can see and hear our first video trailer for the project featuring Mariana, Gavin, Warren and Maxine. Find out more.
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.
