{"id":7806,"date":"2019-12-19T07:31:24","date_gmt":"2019-12-18T23:31:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.curtin.edu.au\/news\/changing-the-narrative-with-audio-description\/"},"modified":"2022-12-07T13:09:41","modified_gmt":"2022-12-07T05:09:41","slug":"changing-the-narrative-with-audio-description","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.curtin.edu.au\/news\/changing-the-narrative-with-audio-description\/","title":{"rendered":"Changing the narrative with audio description"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>It\u2019s a stormy summer evening and two picnickers are watching the sun set over the ocean. One is filled with joy, moved by what she sees. The other expresses worry as the dark storm clouds roll in.<\/p>\n<p>No two people will ever witness a scene in exactly the same way. Cultural bias, personal preference and life experience all impact the way we view the world around us. This can present interesting challenges for those whose job it is to narrate the visual.<\/p>\n<p>Curtin Associate Professor Katie Ellis has been researching the art of narration through her work into audio description.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAudio description (AD) is a track of narration between lines of dialogue that describes important visual elements of a television show or movie, to audiences who are blind or vision impaired,\u201d she explains.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cBut it\u2019s very cultural. For example, the American style of AD is really over-the-top exciting and very descriptive, while the English style is much more reserved. They\u2019ll just describe the picture and leave it up to the audience to interpret emotion.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Audio Description - Full Clip\" width=\"500\" height=\"281\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/7-XOHN2BWG4?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<h3><\/h3>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<h4>Is AD available in Australia?<\/h4>\n<p>Audio description has been around for years, but Australia remains the only English-speaking country in the OECD not to offer the service on free-to-air television.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cMany people are unaware the technology exists as it\u2019s not available on television,\u201d Ellis says. \u201cAnd it\u2019s not on television perhaps because people don\u2019t know what it is. It\u2019s a catch-22 situation.\u201d<\/p>\n<div style=\"width: 35%;float: right;border: 1px solid #333;padding: 10px;margin: 10px 5px 10px 10px\">\n<h3>Audio through the ages<\/h3>\n<p>The first regular recorded instance of AD occurred in the 1940s, when a Spanish radio presenter began narrating films on the radio. But it would be several more decades before the technology became popular.<\/p>\n<p>In the 1960s, avid Star Trek fans, keen to expand the reach of their favourite television show, began recording narrated versions on cassette to share with blind and vision-impaired audiences. Their initiative soon led to widespread use and uptake of AD.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p>But the conversation is changing. In 2017, the Federal Government convened the Audio Description Working Group to discuss options for introducing AD to Australian screens. Ellis and fellow Associate Professor Mike Kent are the only two academics to take part. The group have released a report which recommends three possible delivery options \u2013 via free-to-air television, on catch-up online portals, or via a secondary app that could be synced with audio during television viewing.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThere\u2019s been a lot of progress,\u201d Ellis says. \u201cThe Minister for Communications wrote to all the broadcasters and asked them to start looking into ways to introduce audio description. AD is now available on Netflix, Stan and Apple TV. You can access it on flights with Qantas and Virgin and we\u2019re even seeing it used at live events.\u201d<\/p>\n<h3><\/h3>\n<p>DADAA (Disability in the Arts Disadvantage in the Arts) is one organisation leading the charge.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cDADAA is really pushing boundaries in this space,\u201d Ellis says. \u201cThey\u2019re audio describing festivals, fireworks, parades of sports teams who have won grand finals. You go to the event and DADAA have an app that you can download and use on your phone \u2013 or they can provide a phone for you.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cFor the Australia Day fireworks in Perth, they have a quiet space set up on the banks of the river specifically for those who are blind or vision impaired.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe\u2019re definitely making progress \u2013 I even heard of an audio described drag show in Adelaide!\u201d<\/p>\n<h3><\/h3>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<h4>Spreading the word<\/h4>\n<p>While AD is broadly recognised as benefitting the vision-impaired community, it has advantageous applications for many other groups, including those with autism spectrum disorder (ASD), students, language learners and even ardent television fans.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cSomething I find very interesting about AD is its ability to give you information about what\u2019s on screen that you may otherwise miss,\u201d Ellis explains.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cDescribing emotion can be very helpful to people with ASD \u2013 as well as narrating other cues they might miss out on.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Ellis is quick to point out that AD is not a \u2018one size fits all\u2019 approach.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe recently worked with an ASD focus group and they had different perspectives on what was useful. Some people said that AD, in addition to captions, could be sensory overload.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cSo it\u2019s about providing information in different ways and then giving people the option of whether or not they want to access those channels.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-56872 alignleft\" src=\"https:\/\/www.curtin.edu.au\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/12\/shutterstock_360211148.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"375\" height=\"248\" \/><\/p>\n<p>Ellis says AD has proved popular among TV enthusiasts who use the technology to enhance their own viewing.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThese days we\u2019re binge-watching a lot of complex shows,\u201d she says. \u201cYou might not realise while watching <em>Daredevil<\/em> that there is someone over the shoulder of the main character wearing a red cape, or there may be particular emotions you don\u2019t pick up on.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cPeople on Twitter said the only way they could make sense of the show <em>Sense8<\/em> was through listening to audio description. It can introduce character names you otherwise wouldn\u2019t know for several episodes and can connect the story together in a way that you might miss.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>As well as changing and shaping the way we consume content, AD can also add rich layers of character.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAustralian filmmaking is very visual,\u201d Ellis explains. \u201cThanks to audio description of Australian cinema, we\u2019re seeing how the landscape becomes another character within the show.\u201d<\/p>\n<h4><\/h4>\n<h4><\/h4>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<h4>A captive audience<\/h4>\n<p>Alongside research into AD, Ellis and a team that includes Associate Professor Mike Kent, Dr Leanne McRae, Dr Gwyneth Peaty, Kathryn Locke and Kai-Ti Kao, are exploring the use of captions as a learning tool.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe\u2019re currently looking at how students use captions and whether or not students without hearing impairments derive benefit from them too,\u201d Ellis reveals.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe\u2019ve captioned lectures for certain units and noticed students are using the captions to search for keywords to help them revise. It\u2019s also been useful if the lecturer has a strong accent or speaks very quickly.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Ellis is a passionate advocate for making content accessible to all.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cEveryone learns in different ways \u2013 some people are more visual and others more oral, so it\u2019s really important to provide different options for accessing information.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThanks to captions and the increasing use of audio description, I\u2019m feeling really positive about where we\u2019re headed.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>No two people will ever witness a scene in exactly the same way. This can present interesting challenges to those whose job it is to narrate the visual.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2670,"featured_media":7807,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_oasis_is_in_workflow":0,"_oasis_original":0,"_oasis_task_priority":"","_relevanssi_hide_post":"","_relevanssi_hide_content":"","_relevanssi_pin_for_all":"","_relevanssi_pin_keywords":"","_relevanssi_unpin_keywords":"","_relevanssi_related_keywords":"","_relevanssi_related_include_ids":"","_relevanssi_related_exclude_ids":"","_relevanssi_related_no_append":"","_relevanssi_related_not_related":"","_relevanssi_related_posts":"","_relevanssi_noindex_reason":"","wds_primary_category":0,"wds_primary_research-areas":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[28,3,4,82],"tags":[],"research-areas":[],"class_list":["post-7806","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-art-and-design","category-campus-and-global-community","category-research","category-society-and-culture"],"acf":{"post_options":{"":null,"additional_content":{"title":"People\u2013Planet\u2013Technology","content":"<p>This article forms part of the online series <a href=\"https:\/\/research.curtin.edu.au\/all-posts\/?post-type=stories&amp;category=the-future-of-humanity\"><em>People\u2013Planet\u2013Technology<\/em><\/a>, which showcases Curtin Humanities\u2019 applied research into what it means to be human in an ever-changing world.<\/p>\n<p>Our research is driven by the need to create a better future by examining and engaging with people, the planet and technology \u2013 and how they converge in fascinating ways.<\/p>\n","image":false},"related_courses":false,"credits":{"author":"","photographer":"","media":false},"display_author":true,"banner":{"image":false}}},"featured_image":"https:\/\/www.curtin.edu.au\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/07\/woman-looking-at-mountain-1-1000x500.jpg","author_meta":{"first_name":"Anne","last_name":"Griffin-Appadoo","display_name":"Anne Griffin-Appadoo"},"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-04-12 10:50:44","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.curtin.edu.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7806","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.curtin.edu.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.curtin.edu.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.curtin.edu.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2670"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.curtin.edu.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7806"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.curtin.edu.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7806\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.curtin.edu.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/7807"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.curtin.edu.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7806"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.curtin.edu.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7806"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.curtin.edu.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7806"},{"taxonomy":"research-areas","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.curtin.edu.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/research-areas?post=7806"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}