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AUDIO DESCRIPTION: THE VISUAL MADE VERBAL

Presenter(s)
Joel Snyder
Director of Described Media, National Captioning Institute
1900 Gallows Road, Suite 3000
Vienna, VA 22182
701 917-7693
Email:jsnyder@ncicap.org

What better way to begin today's presentation than with description of two visual images:

[SLIDE] opera description.jpg
"The Fan" by John McPherson

On a stage - at left, a woman in a flowing gown, her hands clasped in front of her, stands before a kneeling man in a doublet and feathered cap. He croons, "Why dost thy heart turn away from mine?" At right, a man at microphone speaks: "Basically, the guy with the goofy hat is ticked because this babe has been runnin' around with the dude in the black tights." The caption reads: "Many opera companies now provide interpreters for the culturally impaired."

[SLIDE] red and rover.jpg
"Red and Rover" by Brian Basset

In the first panel, Red, a red-haired eight-year-old boy, is outdoors, lying on the ground against a tree, facing away from us and his right arm is around Rover, a white, short-haired dog, a lab-beagle mix. A leaf falls - Red announces, "Brown." In the next panel, as Rover's tail taps, Red notes, "Orange, Red, Yellow." In the following panel: "Red, Orange, Yellow, Yellow." Next, Red turns toward us, eyes wide, and tells us: "Dogs only see in black and white." The final panel depicts a more full view of the tree, leaves scattered about the pair as Red continues: "Yellow, Orange, Brown, Red, Orange ..."

But I wouldn't want you to have the impression that everything to do with description in the US is warm and fuzzy - just the other day there was a news report in the Pioneer Press, a daily paper in Minneapolis, Minnesota under the headline, "Words can't quite describe scenes on this stage." Let me share with you just a few lines: "There's a moment in "Puppetry of the Penis" where two naked men on stage manipulate their respective private parts into a piece of body-sculpture called 'The Hamburger'. If reading that sentence makes you wince, think how Rick Jacobson felt describing it. ... 'If you use the proper terms, you're going to get caught up in the words and will be tripping over yourself,' he said. 'I think the first time I say each word, I'm going to choke on it'. (Some theaters) even offer 'sensory tours' for its visually impaired patrons. 'They take them up on the stage, let them walk around and feel the props,' Jacobson said, wryly adding: 'That ain't gonna happen here.'"

I think it was back in prehistoric times when two sighted cavemen were munching on some leftover saber-tooth tiger when one fellow screamed to the other, "Look out behind you, there's a mastodon coming from the left!" There you have it, ladies and gentlemen -- the origin of Audio Description.

I came to description a little more recently ...

Audio Description or AD was developed in the U.S. It was the subject of a Masters' Thesis in San Francisco, California in the 1970's by the late Gregory Frazier. Mr. Frazier was the first to develop the concepts behind the act and the art of AD. Earlier still, however, in 1964, Chet Avery, a blind Department of Education employee, heard of a program there for the captioning of films for people who are deaf. He suggested that descriptions be provided on films for people who are blind and he subsequently encouraged blind consumer organizations to apply for support of AD on film. The organizations, however, were more focused on employment for people who are blind.

In 1980, Wayne White, the House Manager at Arena Stage in Washington, DC, assembled a group of people (including Mr. Avery and the Pfanstiehls) to advise the theater on accessibility issues. Mr. Avery spoke with Wayne White about description possibilities, they both discussed it with the Pfanstiehls, and from there the Washington Ear's AD program was developed. I was already a volunteer reader at The Ear and a professional voice talent/actor and English teacher.

So for over 20 years I've been working with AD - and since that time I have been lucky enough to help performing arts groups, media producers, museums, schools, libraries, and other venues all around the world and on the web develop AD programs.

I do it now on behalf of the National Captioning Institute - broadcast media and 508 projects - and through my own company, Audio Description Associates, through which I focus principally on description in performing arts settings, museums, and training.

Audio Description is a kind of literary art form in itself, to a great extent. It's a type of poetry--a haiku. It provides a verbal version of the visual--the visual is made verbal, and aural, and oral. Using words that are succinct, vivid, and imaginative to convey the visual image that is not fully accessible to a segment of the population and not fully realized by the rest of us. The rest of us, sighted folks who see but who may not observe.

Using relatively unsophisticated technology, AD can enhance arts experiences for all people experiencing exhibits in museums, theater-goers, folks watching television or at the movies, and can even improve kids' literacy skills. It's useful for anyone who wants to truly notice and appreciate a more full perspective on any visual event but it is especially helpful as an access tool for people who are blind or have low vision. You'll find it these days at arts events but also at weddings, parades, rodeos, circuses, sports events, even funerals!

Not too long ago I conducted a workshop in New Haven with day care workers and reading teachers on what I think represents a new application for audio description. We experimented with developing more descriptive language to use when working w/ kids and picture books. Some of these books are deficient with respect to the language skills they involve -- they rely on the pictures to tell the story. But the teacher trained in audio description techniques would never simply hold up a picture of a red ball and read the text: "See the ball." He or she might add: "The ball is red--just like a fire engine. I think that ball is as large as one of you! It's as round as the sun--a bright red circle or sphere." The teacher has introduced new vocabulary, invited comparisons, and used metaphor or simile -- with toddlers! By using audio description, I think that these books will be made accessible to kids who have low vision or are blind *and* help develop more sophisticated language skills for all kids. A picture is worth 1000 words? Maybe. But the audio describer might say that a few well-chosen words can conjure vivid and lasting images.

Indeed, at NCI Described Media we're quite proud to be the folks who provide description - for the first time - for Sesame Street. We were quite heartened by a particular letter we received last year from a blind parent of sighted children who for the first time could follow along with her kids the antics of Elmo, Bert, Ernie, and all the other denizens of Sesame Street.

I mentioned that AD has been around in a formal sense for just over 20 years. Indeed, AD is no longer in its infancy. It is beginning to grow and grow up- becoming more sophisticated, and in greater demand all over the world. New applications continue to emerge-in building literacy as I just noted, with long-distance learning efforts, in offices and at conferences, as part of interactive computer games and in museum displays, and on web sites. There are now federal provisions regarding description in the U.S., in particular Section 508 regarding government-produced media, and the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) rules, currently under review, that affect your access to our culture via television.

Let me help you see what description is all about by asking you, figuratively, to close your eyes - listen to the following excerpt from ABC's presentation of Stephen King's "The Shining," first with no picture on the screen and no description - just as someone with no vision might experience it if he or she had no access to description. Then I'll play the same excerpt as described by the National Captioning Institute's Described Media division: And finally, one last time with the video intact so you can make your own judgments about how well we did with the description. Indeed, the final pages of this abstract are an annotated script of our description for this 90-secord excerpt. The notes will afford you some insight into our reasoning as to why we used the precise language we used-why we chose the words we selected to bring these images to your mind's eye. Let's listen and see --

[DVD PRESENTATION]

In areas where a television station is equipped to participate, AD lets all television viewers to hear what they cannot see. It's accessible via a special audio channel available on stereo televisions. Viewers select the SAP (secondary audio program) channel in order to hear the regular program audio accompanied by the descriptions, precisely timed to occur only during the lapses between dialogue. Sighted viewers appreciate the descriptions as well. It's television for blind, low vision and sighted people who want to be in the kitchen washing dishes while the show is on.

But the Digital Age is fast upon us and other countries may have an edge on the U.S. in mandating the use of this new technology to provide greater accessibility to people who are blind. Once digital television is in place, it will be far easier to transmit a secondary signal like that is employed for audio description. I look forward to that.

AD is available on video by special order and, more recently, in movie theaters for first-run movie screenings through efforts by WGBH's MoPIX Project based in Boston. Oklahoma's Narrative Television Network also produces described videos and description for certain cable programs and, of course, my own National Captioning Institute Described Media division produces hundreds of hours of description for broadcast television.

There's still much to be done: the percentage of all video and film that incorporates description is still miniscule. And DVDs are an ideal format for description because the audio track can be turned on or off as desired and an audio menu can be programmed. Given that fact, it's unfortunate that there are still so few DVDs produced with description in the United States - we're working on that.

Over the past twenty years, I have considered it quite a privilege to train describers and do AD workshops in twenty states in the United States and in nine countries around the world, most recently in Moscow for the 2nd Annual Moscow International Disability Film Festival. I mention that because I want to share with you a strong impression from three days of training I conducted there - and I found the same sort of spirit several years earlier when I conducted five days of training in Sofia, Bulgaria. In both countries, the trainees and my hosts taught me that audio description, access to the arts, is about Democracy. Here I am, coming from the United States, a prosperous, democratic nation, and yet accessibility in the U.S. is often not viewed as a right, as a reflection of the principles upon which our nation was founded. People in Sofia, Bulgaria, in St. Petersburg, and in Moscow are wrestling with economic problems attendant to any new democracy, yet to them democracy means "access to everyone." I learned that from my friends there and I share that wonderfully inclusive notion with you here.

My final point. We have an immense and varied culture in the United States. There is no reason why a person with a visual disability must also be culturally disadvantaged. All people need to be full participants in their nation's cultural life. It must be remembered that the "able bodied" among us are only temporarily so-there is only a thin line between ability and disability. With a focus on people's abilities, we will come much closer to greater inclusion and total access.

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