Audio Description

ÖZ: Bu çalışmanın amacı, Türkçe sesli betimleme metinlerinde gönderimsel ögelerin öncülleriyle ilişkilendirilmesinin Türkçenin yapısından ötürü (örn. uygun bağlamlarda söylenmeden geçilebilen adıllar ve tamlayan ekli ad öbekleri) güçleştiğini göstererek bu sorunun olası çözümlerini tartışmaktır. Yaklaşık 30,000 sözcük içeren veri tabanı, bir İngilizce çeviri bölümü öğrencilerinin görsel-işitsel çeviri dersi kapsamında ürettikleri Türkçe sesli betimleme metinlerinden oluşmaktadır. Veri çözümlemesi sonucu elde edilen bulgular, Türkçenin olağan sözdizim ve edimbilim kuralları gereği tümcede söylenmeden geçilebilen gönderimsel ögelerin öncülleriyle ilişkilendirilmesinin sesli betimleme ortamında durum bağlamındaki görsel ögelerden yararlanılamaması nedeniyle zorlaştığını göstermektedir. Bu sorunu çözmenin bazı yolları ise sözcük sırasını değiştirmek, tümce ezgisini doğru kullanmak, ve eşgönderimliliğin doğru yorumlanabilmesi için gerektiğinde artgönderim ilişkisindeki öncülleri ad öbeği biçimde tekrarlamaktır. Anahtar sözcükler: sesli betimleme, gönderimsel öge, öncül, eşgönderimli, eşdizinleme Referential Elements in Turkish Audio Description Texts ABSTRACT: This study focuses on Turkish audio description texts in an attempt to illustrate the difficulty in linking referential elements with their antecedents arising from particular structural properties of Turkish (e.g. the possibility to omit pronouns and genitive-marked possessor noun phrases in appropriate contexts) and to discuss possible solutions for this problem. The data to be analyzed come from a 30,000-word corpus consisting of audio description texts prepared by students taking a course in audiovisual translation in an undergraduate program in translation studies. A detailed data analysis indicates that omission of antecedent pronouns and possessor noun phrases due to regular syntactic/pragmatic conventions of Turkish hampers unambiguous co-indexation of referential elements, especially given the unavailability of visual input in the audio description environment. In order to facilitate correct interpretation of co-referentiality, possible solutions are word order changes, proper use of sentence intonation and repetition of antecedents in the form of full noun phrases, etc.

The main objective of the project was to investigate the benefits of practising AD for developing L1 skills, especially lexical and syntactic abilities, in Catalan language. Beyond L1 competence, AD practice should provide students with other benefits, such as improving their technical skills, practicing film and image analysis, and raising awareness on blindness and functional diversity. The project was conducted from November 2020 to June 2021, with 80 first-year students at a Catalan secondary school taking an AD training course that includes two practices and a seminar with a professional audio describer.

Straipsnyje kalbama apie tai, kaip žmonėms su regos negalia palengvinti prieigą prie audiovizualinės produkcijos. Didžiausias dėmesys čia skiriamas teatro spektakliams.
Pristatoma pasaulyje plačiai taikoma garsinio vaizdavimo (angl. Audio Description) metodika, ji aptariama audiovizualinio vertimo kontekste, kalbama apie Lietuvoje pagal šią metodiką jau pritaikytus produktus.

In this article, the methodological aspects of a reception study on audio description (AD) are presented. Our hypothesis is that interpretative audio descriptions offer a better experience to AD users and we have tested it with visually impaired participants in Catalonia. We have compared three different audio description styles: a denotative, a cinematic and a narrative AD style. Firstly, we present our experimental material: the selected film, Nuit Blanche (Arev Man-oukian, 2009), and a threefold narrative, cinematic and AD-oriented analysis to inform audio description creation. Then we detail the framework based on functionalist translation theory in which we defined our three AD styles. After that, we describe and discuss our experimental design: participants selection, questionnaires designed to get insights into the emotional and cognitive film reception, focus group interviews. The study is still ongoing but we can end the article with preliminary findings, which indicate that comprehension enjoyment and emotion are closely linked in the film experience and can be affected by the audio description.

From the lucrative blockbusters distributed by Hollywood powerful studios to the brief videos assembled and circulated by ordinary people, contemporary screen culture is populated by a growing variety of audiovisual texts travelling across different languages and cultures. Audiovisual Translation: Theories, Methods, Issues provides a unique focus on the translation of these increasingly influential texts, including their producers and consumers, that now pervade all aspects of our lives. Through a range of examples drawn from different genres, this book moves beyond the linguistic concerns traditionally privileged within audiovisual translation, introducing students and researchers to the artistic, economic, social and political dimensions of this activity.

The book first traces the development and evolution of audiovisual translation, exploring how the homogenizing mediation practices imposed by the industry during the mass media era are being challenged by interventionist forms of translation in the era of the digital culture.

The evolving conceptual network that underpin this area of study, the key translation models driving the theorization of this activity and the most productive methodological approaches to the study of audiovisual translation are then surveyed, critiqued and illustrated in a systematic, easy-to-follow manner. Multimodal theory and self-mediation studies receive particular attention as the most influential theoretical frameworks that will drive audiovisual translation research in years to come. Students and early career scholars are provided with comprehensive guidance to design and undertake audiovisual translation research projects.

Each chapter features chapter summaries, introductory videos, authentic examples, break out boxes, reading suggestions and follow‐up questions for further study. A companion website provides readers with access to additional resources on each of the topics covered in this book.

Audiovisual Translation is the definitive guide to the research models and methodological approaches that are enabling and will continue to drive advances in this fast-developing area of study.

• The book can serve as a textbook for use at MA level but also constitutes a ‘first port‐of‐call’ reference on aspects of theoretical inquiry.
• The book explores new audiovisual translation genres and practices in contemporary networked societies, covering topics and issues not previously discussed in the audiovisual translation literature.
• The book includes a whole chapter offering methodological direction to readers conducting their own research at MA at doctoral level.
• The follow-up questions for discussion in all chapters provide abundant ideas for extended postgraduate essays, various types of dissertation, and (post)doctoral level research projects.

In 2012, Italy witnessed the successful distribution of a new animated version of Pinocchio: created by Italian illustrator and scriptwriter Enzo D’Alò, this all new version of the famous fairy tale challenges 3-D and digital animation, bringing children (and adults) back to the magical world of vivid and suggestive hand drawing. In 2013, Enzo D’Alò’s Pinocchio was the first animated film to be released on DVD, in Italy, with audio description. As another Italian premiere, the audio description of the film was based on the film’s script provided by the director.
Drawing from previous research in audio description (AD), as well as from manuals on scriptwriting for animation, this article reports on the production of Pinocchio’s audio description from beginning to end. The article also focuses on the reception of this film with AD, presenting the results of an experiment carried out with Italian blind children.

Accessibility to museums is enhanced by various types of cultural mediation, such as audio guides, which consist of a means to make the museum visit more autonomous and simultaneously replace the traditional guided visit. Their use is integrated in the tendency for museum democratisation felt in Europe between the 60s and the 80s of the 20th century, especially accomplished with the development of educational services at museums and their opening to schools. It is also an invaluable solution for foreign visitors and particularly people with special needs, such as the blind and visually-impaired, the deaf and hard-of-hearing or those with intellectual disabilities. This paper intends to analyse audio guides on offer in Portuguese museums according to specific criteria, so as to ascertain their current practices and the potential role of audio guides as an accessibility tool.

Language learners and teachers often resort to films to improve listening skills and
benefit from the advantages of this engaging and entertaining resource. Since learning
by doing is generally considered to be more effective than learning by watching,
active tasks are necessary when using audiovisual material for language learning. The
ClipFlair project proposes interacting with video by adding text or voice-recordings
to it. Proposed tasks include simulating the work of a subtitler or dubber but are not
confined to it. The umbrella terms captioning and revoicing are used to include all
interaction of written and spoken words, moving image and sound. This paper presents
the ClipFlair web platform, with a short introduction to the methodological framework
that supports it, as well as examples of language learning activities based on captioning
and revoicing.

Audio description turns the visual into verbal to make audiovisual products accessible to blind and visually impaired patrons. Since its beginnings some thirty years ago, AD has been gaining importance in the audiovisual landscape as well as in cultural venues and events. In this paper, I will examine what is at stake in this form of intersemiotic translation and how it fits in the theoretical framework of Translation Studies. I will then look at practice: how is AD done and offered. The last part of the paper will regard a crucial aspect of AD research: AD strategies and user experience.

The current research project is set within the scope of Audiovisual Translation (AVT), with a descriptive, multimodal and multidisciplinary approach. More particularly, it aims at approaching the AVT accessibility solutions, by means of audio description. Audio description as a means to describe all the dimensions of life has been applied to numerous cultural and leisure contexts, namely to the cinema, theatre, music and opera, as well as museums and galleries, and has reached its height in the 1980s in the US and the UK. In highly visual places, such as museums, audio description is of the utmost importance for the access of blind and visually-impaired visitors, but it can not be the only means available. Mediation must be conducted according to different communication forms, such as information materials (labels for the objects under exhibition, museum text on walls text, room texts, leaflets and brochures) in large print or in Braille, guided visits, audio guides or descriptive guides, touch materials and hands-on experiences, included or not in the activities of the educational services. Museum accessibility for visually-impaired audiences is more complex than what might be expected and demands a holistic approach that encompasses the abovementioned aspects. Therefore, based on the theoretical principles retrieved from Disability Studies, Audiovisual Translation Studies and Museum Studies, we developed the empirical study of this thesis, which comprehends a two-fold approach: on the one hand, a case study (of phenomenological research) that focuses on listing the Portuguese institutions that offer descriptive guides, describing the visits undertaken to a representative sample of these institutions and their subsequent characterisation, and, on the other, a corpus study that analyses qualitatively a sample of 35 audio commentaries. From this empirical component, we intend to describe the accessibility practices in Portugal in terms of institutional, technical and macrostructural criteria, as well as the descriptive guides from these institutions, according to their conformity to a set of microstructural criteria.

The essay (final draft) begins by exploring the classical concepts of narratology, before proceeding to consider to what extent such concepts apply to audiovisual narrative. The essay then critically examines the relevance of narratology to the study of audiovisual narrative in translation, and discusses a variety of narratological insights that bear on narratives conveyed across media, subtitling, dubbing and audio description: action, plot, narration, description, narrativity, focalization and characterization--with special reference to 'Pulp Fiction'.

The aim of this book is to systematically review studies on the applications of captioning (subtitling) and revoicing (dubbing, audio description, and voice-over) in the foreign language classroom, in order to offer an overview of the state of the art and encourage further research. The literature review presents research on the topic, paying particular attention to relevant experimental studies (i.e. empirical research that involves data collection, and not just a mere description of the experience or the learners’ outcomes), examined in terms of research focus, target languages, participants, learning settings, audiovisual materials, captioning/revoicing software, and type of analysis (i.e. qualitative and/or quantitative).

La traducción de referencias culturales es uno de los aspectos más complejos en Traductología, por lo que el presente Trabajo de Fin de Máster pretende exponer la experiencia de subtitular y audiodescribir productos audiovisuales con un marcado carácter cultural para la entidad transFORMAS. Para ello, se ha elaborado un marco teórico a partir de las aportaciones de los principales autores relacionados con la
historia, la técnica y la teoría de la audiodescripción y de la subtitulación, así como con el trato de las referencias culturales en la traducción audiovisual para poder justificar las decisiones tomadas desde una perspectiva traductológica y en última instancia intentar identificar las tendencias al subtitular y audiodescribir estos productos.

Greco makes the case that within the human rights framework there is a serious problem regarding accessibility, what he deems the ‘Accessibility as a Human Right Divide’ Problem (AHRD Problem). The AHRD Problem highlights the divide between accessibility as a human right per se versus accessibility as an instrument for the fulfilment of human rights. Greco critically rejects the former, skilfully arguing how accessibility is indeed a proactive principle, and access a necessary requirement for achieving human rights. As a case in point, Greco closes with an example from South Africa, showing how full acknowledgement of the AHRD Problem, and the interpretation of accessibility as a means, and not an end, has the ability to transform the field of media accessibility.

This paper first illustrates the major revisions, such as a new view of society, the nation, and education, introduced by the New Museology or Museum Studies in the 1980s and 1990s. These changes certainly favoured the development of museum audio description. As museum audio description can be included in the new forms of interactivity, the change of paradigm of interactivity in new museums is analysed and examples are given. Then, a general overview of audio description and its process creation are briefly illustrated in their strengths and limitations. This overview anticipates the two complementary studies on museum audio description as multimodal and multisensory translation. Both studies see the museum and its audio description as an interactive multimodal communicative event but the former focusses more on the grammar of multimodality, whereas the latter emphasises aspects of artistic fruition and the importance of a creative and interpretative language. The paper concludes with my analysis of a museum audio description from the British Museum, focussing in particular on cohesion and coherence.

Purpose: Technical communicators concerned with such issues as media accessibility, disability rights, and universal design could explore fertile scholarly ground by investigating Audio Description more through applied research methods. This article illustrates such potential through the explication of a transmodal-translation process conducted on National Park Service brochures, including interpretation and
transformation of their maps into acoustic forms.
Method: Our mixed-methods approach included feedback from diverse blind, visually impaired, and sighted stakeholders, including administrators, media designers, and representative park-site users. These insights were then tested through field work and complemented by multiple interviews and focus groups. During this process, we
developed digital tools—including open-source software and free mobile apps—for iterative testing and sharing of ideas.
Results: Besides generating thematic and diverse insights about this topic, our study also established, developed, and refined a set of best-practices guidelines based on research in the field, informed by gathered empirical evidence. These guidelines are intended to support subject-matter experts at public attractions, regardless of discipline,
in the creation of better, more accessible maps through Audio Description.
Conclusion: How could a person possibly transform a complex, fully visual, and printed-on-paper map into useful acoustic media for blind and visually impaired visitors? After consulting the scattered, related literature, we oriented our efforts toward the multi-faceted technical communication practice of localization. We then dedicated
our project resources to real-world interventions through both the application and the development of audio-description strategies and digital-media-delivery systems as a practical and universal approach to these related translation and localization problems.
Keywords: maps, audio description, blindness and visual impairment, mobile apps, best practices guidelines

English:

Recent years have witnessed an increase in the number of studies incorporating Audiovisual Translation (AVT) techniques as a tool to develop linguistic competence in Foreign Language (FL) learning. In parallel, there has been a shift towards attaching greater relevance to the use of films in the FL curriculum. The originality of the present study lies in according a similar degree of importance to film literacy as to the chosen AVT techniques and the FL learning. This article aims primarily to offer a pedagogical method combining three disciplines -film literacy, Audio-Description (AD) and Subtitling for the Deaf and Hard-of-Hearing (SDH) applied to FL learning. Based on the methodology employed in the Film in Language Teaching Association (FILTA) (www.filta.org.uk), it outlines a teaching model in which the learner concurrently acquires film knowledge and the skills needed to translate audiovisual texts. On the one hand, students receive film analysis training; on the other hand, they also acquire the basic knowledge required to complete activities using AD and SDH.

Spanish:

Los últimos años han sido testigos del aumento en el número de estudios que incorporan técnicas de Traducción Audiovisual (TAV) como herramienta para desarrollar la competencia lingüística del aprendizaje de Lenguas Extranjeras (LE). Paralelamente, ha habido un cambio al conceder una mayor relevancia al uso de películas en los planes de estudios de LE. La originalidad de este trabajo radica en otorgar un mismo nivel de importancia a conceptos fílmicos, a las técnicas de TAV escogidas y al aprendizaje de LE. El objetivo principal es ofrecer una propuesta pedagógica que combina estas tres disciplinas. Basándonos en la metodología trabajada desde la asociación Film in Language Teaching Association (FILTA) (www.filta.org.uk), esta propuesta perfila un modelo de enseñanza en el que el aprendiente adquiere de forma paralela conocimientos fílmicos y destrezas necesarias para traducir textos audiovisuales. Por un lado, se dota al estudiante de formación en análisis fílmico; por otro, se imparten conocimientos básicos para llevar a cabo las modalidades de Audio-Descripción (AD) y Subtitulado Para Sordos (SpS).

http://www.intralinea.org/specials/article/2245

This paper approaches audio description (AD) from a Translation Studies point of view. The two first parts are of theoretical interest: AD is defined as a part of the audiovisual text and as a form of intersemiotic translation. Once this is set up, the paper concentrates on the concept of translation techniques and adapts them to audio description to provide scholars and students with a functional classification of AD techniques (ADT), which can be used for descriptive studies of audio descriptions as well as in training, and is based on a functional classification of translation techniques. The paper ends with detailed examples from a comparative study of several audio descriptions of the film Slumdog Millionaire (2008) using ADTs to illustrate the benefits of the established taxonomy.

This paper first gives an overview of AD in relation to accessibility. Accessibility and transdisciplinarity have in fact become the key notions around which AD has developed in recent times. Accessibility is now seen not only as a means of overcoming physical, emotional, intellectual and sensory barriers but also as a pro-active principle of Human Rights. Transdisciplinarity is here meant as a dialogue among disciplines bringing about changes in each of them. In particular, the purpose of this paper is to provide a detailed account of the complex relationship of museum AD with museum studies and visual culture. In fact, museum AD is an example of a successful transdisciplinary encounter: focussing on some features of museum AD, such as language and accessibility, a parallel is drawn between the development of museums and that of museum AD. Particularly significant for museum AD was the passage from the postmodern museum to the 'post-muse-um', which revises some founding tenets of museology such as elitism, nation, community, education, distinction between high art and low art and predominance of 'seeing' over the other senses. For this reason, an extensive bibliography on AD, museum studies and visual culture covering the main achievement in each field is given. My aim is to offer a reference based guide for those scholars interested in the ongoing transdisciplinary debate among these disciplines.

ABSTRACT If new televisions are bringing more and more features in our living rooms, they are still lacking an important axis of the TV user experience: emotions. And this is particularly true for visually and hearing impaired people. Therefore, we want to find innovative ways to bring them emotions that are usually conveyed through sound and images, by taking advantage of arousal modeling of films. Such empathic TV experiences will give them the possibility to fully enjoy visual media.

Translation as a new strategy of creating audio description was proposed and investigated by several researchers and adopted by professional practice as a cost-cutting strategy that produces a good quality audio description. Theory and practice have at least one thing in common – AD translation is performed exclusively from English into other languages. This article explores the possibility of translating into English AD scripts created locally for non-English-language films. More specifically – based on a case study of the Polish award-winning film Ida (dir. Pawlikowski, 2013) it aims to get some insight on if and what strategies would needed to be applied in order to render the cultural references from the Polish AD script into English.

The number of accessible audiovisual products and the pace at which audiovisual content is made accessible need to be increased, reducing costs whenever possible. The implementation of different technologies which are already available in the translation field, specifically machine translation technologies, could help reach this goal in audio description for the blind and partially sighted. Measuring machine translation quality is essential when selecting the most appropriate machine translation engine to be implemented in the audio description field for the English-Catalan language combination. Automatic metrics and human assessments are often used for this purpose in any specific domain and language pair. This article proposes a methodology based on both objective and subjective measures for the evaluation of five different and free online machine translation systems. Their raw machine translation outputs and the post-editing effort that is involved are assessed using eight different scores. Results show that there are clear quality differences among the systems assessed and that one of them is the best rated in six out of the eight evaluation measures used. This engine would therefore yield the best freely machine-translated audio descriptions in Catalan presumably reducing the audio description process turnaround and costs.

As a state-of-the-art article on international audio description research, this study aims to present a general framework for possible linguistic research on audio description and stimulate further scientific activities in Turkey. Current studies on audio description focus on its production, transmission and reception phases. With respect to the production phase, topics dealt with include audiovisual products/media, types of (audio) descriptive texts, the nature and language of texts, training of audio describers, text production time, text production methods and sound recording. With respect to the transmission phase, research has focused on transmission technologies in analogue and digital television and affordances of receiver devices in various environments. As for the reception phase, empirical studies have been conducted on the perceptual and cognitive aspects of the reception of audio description texts. Taking such trends on audio description research into consideration may not only inform linguistic research on audio description in Turkey but also contribute to the development of Turkish-specific best practices.

Introduction to the edited volume

This book shows some of the ways in which audiovisual translation (AVT) can be approached from an academic, professional and educational point of view. The studies provide a stimulating and thought-provoking account of some of the themes that are currently being researched in the field of AVT, while also highlighting new directions of research.

Within the field of Audiovisual Translation (AVT) it is still unclear what place Audio Description (AD) occupies. This is even more so when considering its place within Translation Studies in general. Audio Description is often seen as “the odd one out”, because it transfers images to words and generates an exclusively aural target text, as opposed to other AVT forms such as subtitling and dubbing. This raises the question as to what text type AD is and how it can be related to other text types in (Audio Visual) Translation Studies. This paper aims to provide an explora- tory reply to these questions by presenting a functional analysis of the text type of a specific theatre production and the implications for the AD text type. The analysis of the play draws on key text type concepts from within Translation Studies, on au- thors such as Nord, Reiss and from within the field of AVT, on authors such as Zabalbeascoa. Since the analysis is concerned with a theatre production, it was necessary to adopt an interdisciplinary approach and incorporate concepts from Theatre Semiotics as well. The functional analysis in this paper highlights different aspects of the AD text type within a multimodal context. The author hopes to con- tribute to the idea that new forms of translation do call for new concepts and research methods. Nevertheless, AVT research should not be conducted, detached from traditional translation theory.

Мурманский арктический государственный университет, Мурманск В статье рассматривается перевод аудиодескрипции с английского языка на рус-ский как возможность расширить границы доступной среды для слепых и слабо-видящих. Предлагается стратегия работы переводчика с учетом особенностей со-здания текста аудиодескрипции. Ключевые слова: аудиодескрипция, видеоряд, доступная среда, аудиовизуальный перевод, культурная реалия. В последнее время вопросы создания доступной среды для слепых и сла-бовидящих оказались в центре внимания не только представителей специализи-рованных организаций (таких, как Всероссийское общество слепых и его реги-ональные отделения или специальные образовательные учреждения), но и ис-следователей, представителей власти, культурных учреждений, создателей аудиовизуальных произведений и т.д. Доказательством тому может служить принятое в Российской Федерации в 2016 году законодательство, согласно ко-торому художественные и анимационные фильмы с государственной поддерж-кой обязаны предоставлять тифлодорожку к готовому продукту, что облегчит доступ слепых и слабовидящих к аудиовизуальным произведениям. Ежегодно Министерство культуры РФ по результатам экспертизы кино-проектов определяет, какие фильмы получат субсидии от государства. Доля та-ких фильмов в общем потоке аудиовизуальных произведений, попадающих на российские экраны, мала: так, в 2018 году из 65 картин, представленных на экс-пертизу в категории «авторское и экспериментальное кино», государственную поддержку получили 35 фильмов, в категории «игровое кино для детей» поддер-жаны 12 проектов из 20. Это означает, что в течение года в обязательном по-рядке будет подготовлена тифлодорожка лишь для 12 аудиовизуальных произ-ведений для детей. Статистические данные о количестве слепых и слабовидя-щих в России следующие: из 218 тысяч слепых и слабовидящих 103 тысячи аб-солютно слепых, большинство людей с нарушениями зрения-люди в возрасте старше 50 лет, 22 %-молодежь и дети. Для слепых и слабовидящих представителей молодого поколения основ-ным источником получения информации является Интернет. Развитие техноло-гий позволяет им пользоваться голосовыми программами для считывания ин-формации с экрана компьютера или смартфона, приложениями, определяю-щими интенсивность света, камерами, распознающими объекты. Технология со-здания словесного описания на основе анализа визуальной информации аудио-визуального произведения, призванная компенсировать недостаток информа-ции, получаемой при помощи зрения, позволяет слепым и слабовидящим смот-реть кино, тем самым приобщаясь к жизни общества.

This PhD thesis is an experimental reception study on audio description (AD) for the blind and the visually impaired in which we test the effect of AD narration speed, intonation and explicitation on film comprehension and, secondarily, on enjoyment. First of all, we review and classify the main literature on AD up to 2012, with a special emphasis on Catalonia and Spain. After that, we present the theoretical frame chosen (Branigan 1992) and its concept of narrative schema, which allows us to define film comprehension and to have a theoretical basis to tackle some methodological aspects related to the experiment. Next, we explain the methodological aspects of the research, such as the selection, the narratological analysis and the manipulation of the corpus; the creation of the measurement scale of comprehension; the creation of the experimental groups (blind and visually impaired people) and the control group (sighted people); and other ethical and data processing issues. On the third place, we present a quantitative analysis of the results on comprehension and a qualitative analysis on the enjoyment for the different groups and values of the AD parameters which were manipulated. Finally, we highlight the tendencies observed in the analysis and we provide some recommendations which can be applied both to the professional and the teaching practice of AD and which complement the vagueness of most AD standards.