Cover not available

Article published In: Target
Vol. 28:3 (2016) ► pp.424–444

Get fulltext from our e-platform
JBE logo with link
PDF logo with download linkDownload PDF
authorization required

Gains and losses of watching audio described films for sighted viewers

 | Università degli Studi di Trieste
Published online: 29 September 2016
DOI logo with link
https://doi.org/10.1075/target.28.3.04per
Abstract
Audio description (AD) is a unique form of communication that guarantees access to audiovisual material for blind people through an additional verbal commentary that describes relevant visual cues. In spite of its original purpose and target audience, some scholars and some guidelines maintain that AD can be useful for other sectors of the population, and suggest that sighted viewers could usefully listen to AD when ‘watching’ a film with blind people. In order to determine whether AD affects the sighted viewer’s cognitive performance and appreciation of the film, and whether AD can be exploited as an integration tool allowing blind and sighted users to mingle when ‘watching’ a film, we assessed the effect of AD on sighted viewers (n = 125, 18-28 years) empirically. Results suggest that the addition of AD to films does not negatively affect the cognitive aspects of the viewing experience (i.e., general understanding and film scene recognition), nor does it dramatically affect its overall enjoyment, whereas listening to AD without the visuals poses some challenges to sighted viewers.
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
    • 1.1AD and its benefits for VIPs
    • 1.2Potential extended uses of AD: the literature to date
    • 1.3Hypotheses and research questions
  • 2.An experiment on the effects of AD on sighted viewers
  • 3.Method
    • 3.1Participants
    • 3.2Materials
      • 3.2.1The audiovisual material
      • 3.2.2Questionnaires and tests
        • 3.2.2.1Cognitive measures
        • 3.2.2.2Evaluative measures
        • 3.2.2.3Questionnaire on AD
    • 3.3Design and procedure
  • 4.Results
    • 4.1Cognitive Measures
      • 4.1.1Gist comprehension
      • 4.1.2Recognition of visual details expressed verbally
      • 4.1.3Recognition of visual scenes
    • 4.2Evaluative measures
    • 4.3Questionnaire on AD
  • 5.General discussion and conclusions
  • Acknowledgements
  • Notes
  • References
References (46)
References
ADLAB. 2012. Report on User Needs Assessment. ADLAB Project (Audio Description: Lifelong Access to the Blind) Report no. 1. [URL]
ADP (Audio Description Project). 2009. Audio Description Standards (July 2009): A Work in Progress. American Council of the Blind. [URL]
AENOR. 2005. Norma Española UNE 153020. Audiodescripción para personas con discapacidad visual. Requisitos para la audiodescripción y elaboración de audioguías. Madrid: AENOR.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Brainerd, Charles J., and Valerie F. Reyna. 2002. “Fuzzy-Trace Theory: Dual Processes in Memory, Reasoning, and Cognitive Neuroscience.” Advances in Child Development and Behavior 281: 41–100. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Braun, Sabine. 2008. “Audiodescription Research: State of the Art and Beyond.” Translation Studies in the New Millennium 61:14–30.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Busarello, Eraldo. 2013. “Cos’è la Cooperativa Senza Barriere Onlus.” Paper presented at the AD Day Seminar, University of Trieste, April 19, 2013.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Busarello, Eraldo, and Fabio Sordo. 2011. Manuale per aspiranti audio descrittori di audiofilm per non vedenti. Scurelle (TN): Cooperativa Sociale Senza Barriere ONLUS.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Cronin, Barry J., and Sharon Robertson King. 1990. “The Development of the Descriptive Video Service.” Journal of Visual Impairment and Blindness 84 (10): 503–506. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Dosch, Elmar, and Bernd Benecke. 2004. Wenn aus Bildern Worte werden – Durch Audio Description zum Hörfilm. Munich: Bayerischer Rundfunk.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
d’Ydewalle, Géry, and Wim De Bruycker. 2007. “Eye Movements of Children and Adults While Reading Television Subtitles.” European Psychologist 121:196–205. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Frazier, Gregory. 1975. The Autobiography of Miss Jane Pitman: An All-Audio Adaptation of the Teleplay for the Blind and Visually Handicapped. Unpublished MA thesis San Francisco State University.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Frazier, Gregory, and Ida Coutinho-Johnson. 1995. The Effectiveness of Audio Description in Providing Access to Educational AV Media for Blind and Visually Impaired Students in High School. San Francisco: Audio Vision.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Fryer, Louise, and Jonathan Freeman. 2012. “Presence in Those with and without Sight: Audio Description and its Potential for Virtual Reality Applications.” Journal of Cyber Therapy and Rehabilitation 5 (1): 15–23.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. 2013. “Cinematic Language and the Description of Film: Keeping AD Users in the Frame.” Perspectives: Studies in Translatology 21 (3): 412–426. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. 2014. “Can You Feel What I’m Saying? The Impact of Verbal Information on Emotion Elicitation and Presence in People with a Visual Impairment.” In Challenging Presence: Proceedings of the 15th International Conference on Presence, ed. by Anna Felnhofer, and Oswald D. Kothgassner, 99-107. Wien: facultas.wuv.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Grimes, Tom. 1991. “Mild Auditory-Visual Dissonance in Television News May Exceed Viewer Attentional Capacity.” Human Communication Research 18 (2): 268–298. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Guichon, Nicolas, and Sinead McLornan. 2008. “The Effects of Multimodality on L2 Learners: Implications for CALL Resource Design.” System 36 (1): 85–93. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Jakobson, Roman. (1959) 2000. “On Linguistic Aspects of Translation.” In The Translation Studies Reader, ed. by Lawrence Venuti, 113-118. London: Routledge.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Koolstra, Cees M., Allard L. Peeters, and Herman Spinhof. 2002. “The Pros and Cons of Dubbing and Subtitling.” European Journal of Communication 171: 325–354. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Krejtz, Izabela, Agnieszka Szarkowska, Krzysztof Krejtz, Agnieszka Walczak, and Andrew Duchowski. 2012. “Audio Description as an Aural Guide of Children’s Visual Attention: Evidence from an Eye-Tracking Study.” In ETRA ‘12, Proceedings of the Symposium on Eye Tracking Research and Applications, 99-106. New York: ACM. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Krejtz, Krzysztof, Izabela Krejtz, Andrew Duchowski, Agnieszka Szarkowska, and Agnieszka Walczak. 2012. “Multimodal Learning with Audio Description: An Eye Tracking Study of Children’s Gaze during a Visual Recognition Task.” In Proceedings of the ACM Symposium on Applied Perception (SAP ‘12), 83-90. New York: ACA. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Lang, Annie. 1995. “Defining Audio/Video Redundancy from a Limited Capacity Information Processing Perspective.” Communication Research 221:86–115. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Lang, Annie, Satoko Kurita, Ya Gao, and Bridget Rubenking. 2013. “Measuring Television Message Complexity as Available Processing Resources: Dimensions of Information and Cognitive Load.” Media Psychology 16 (2): 129–153. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Lang, Annie, Shuhua Zhou, Nancy Schwartz, Paul D. Bolls, and Robert F. Potter. 2000. “The Effects of Edits on Arousal, Attention, and Memory for Television Messages: When an Edit is an Edit Can an Edit be too Much?” Journal of Broadcasting and Electronic Media 44 (1): 94–109. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Lavaur, Jean-Marc, and Dominique Bairstow. 2011. “Languages on the Screen: Is Film Comprehension Related to Viewers’ Fluency Level and to the Language in the Subtitles?” International Journal of Psychology 461: 455–462. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Morisset, Laure, and Frédéric Gonant. 2008. La charte de l’audiodescription. [URL]
New Media Consortium. 2005. The Horizon Report. S.l.: The New Media Consortium. [URL]
Ofcom 2010. Code on Television Access Services. London: Ofcom. [URL]
Packer, Jaclyn. 1996. “Video Description in North America.” In New Technologies in the Education of the Visually Handicapped, ed. by Dominique Berger, 103-107. Montrouge: John Libbey Eurotext.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Paivio, Allan. 1986. Mental Representations: A Dual Coding Approach. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Peli, Eli, Elisabeth M. Fine, and Angela T. Labianca. 1996. “Evaluating Visual Information Provided by Audio Description.” Journal of Visual Impairment and Blindness 90 (5): 378–385. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Perego, Elisa, Fabio Del Missier, Marco Porta, and Mauro Mosconi. 2010. “The Cognitive Effectiveness of Subtitle Processing.” Media Psychology 13 (3): 243–272. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Perego, Elisa, Fabio Del Missier, and Sara Bottiroli. 2015. “Dubbing and Subtitling in Young and Older Adults: Cognitive and Evaluative Aspects.” Perspectives: Studies in Translatology 23 (1): 1–21. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Piety, Philip J. 2003. Audio Description: A Visual Assistive Discourse. Unpublished thesis Georgetown University, Washington, DC.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Piety, Philip J. 2004. “The Language System of Audio Description. An Investigation as a Discursive Process.” Journal of Visual Impairment and Blindness 98 (8): 453–469. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Rai, Sonali, Joan Greening, and Leen Petré. 2010. A Comparative Study of Audio Description Guidelines Prevalent in Different Countries. London: Media and Culture Department, Royal National Institute of Blind People (RNIB).Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Remael, Aline, and Gert Vercauteren. 2011. Basisprincipes voor audiobeschrijving voor televisie en film [Basics of audio description for television and film]. Antwerp: Departement Vertalers and Tolken, Artesis Hogeschool.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Remael, Aline, Nina Reviers, and Gert Vercauteren, eds. 2015. Pictures Painted in Words: ADLAB Audio Description Guidelines. Trieste: EUT. [URL]
Reyna, Valerie F., and Charles J. Brainerd. 1995. “Fuzzy-Trace Theory: An Interim Synthesis.” Learning and Individual Differences 7 (1): l-75. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Salway, Andrew. 2007. “A Corpus-Based Analysis of Audio Description.” In Media for All. Subtitling for the Deaf, Audio Description, and Sign Language, ed. by Jorge Díaz-Cintas, Pilar Orero, and Aline Remael, 151-174. Amsterdam: Rodopi. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Schmeidler, Emilie, and Corinne Kirchner. 2001. “Adding Audio Description: Does it Make a Difference?” Journal of Visual Impairment and Blindness 95 (4): 197–212. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Snyder, Joel. 2007. “Audio Description: The Visual Made Verbal.” International Journal of the Arts in Society 21: 99–104.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Szarkowska, Agnieszka, Izabela Krejtz, Krzysztof Krejtz, and Andrew Duchowski. 2013. “Harnessing the Potential of Eye-Tracking for Media Accessibility.” In Translation Studies and Eye-Tracking Analysis, ed. by Sambor Grucza, Monika Płużyczka, and Justyna Zając, 153-183. Frankfurt: Peter Lang.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Thomas, Angela. 2007. Youth Online: Identity and Literacy in the Digital Age. New York: Peter Lang.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Wissmath, Bartholomäus, David Weibel, and Rudolf David. 2009. “Dubbing or Subtitling? Effects on Spatial Presence, Transportation, Flow, and Enjoyment.” Journal of Media Psychology 211: 114–125. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Zubek, John P., ed. 1969. Sensory Deprivation: Fifteen Years of Research. New York: Appleton Century Crofts.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Cited by (9)

Cited by nine other publications

Fang, Bo, Wenhao Wu, Qiangqiang Wu, Yuxin Song & Antoni B. Chan
2025. 2025 IEEE/CVF Conference on Computer Vision and Pattern Recognition (CVPR), ► pp. 13571 ff. DOI logo
Park, Jaehyeong, Juncheol Ye, Seungkook Lee, Hyun W. Ka & Dongsu Han
2025. 2025 IEEE/CVF Winter Conference on Applications of Computer Vision (WACV), ► pp. 409 ff. DOI logo
Wang, Hanlin, Zhan Tong, Kecheng Zheng, Yujun Shen & Limin Wang
2025. 2025 IEEE/CVF Conference on Computer Vision and Pattern Recognition (CVPR), ► pp. 8372 ff. DOI logo
Zhang, Chaoyi, Kevin Lin, Zhengyuan Yang, Jianfeng Wang, Linjie Li, Chung-Ching Lin, Zicheng Liu & Lijuan Wang
2024. 2024 IEEE/CVF Conference on Computer Vision and Pattern Recognition (CVPR), ► pp. 13647 ff. DOI logo
Han, Tengda, Max Bain, Arsha Nagrani, Gül Varol, Weidi Xie & Andrew Zisserman
2023. 2023 IEEE/CVF International Conference on Computer Vision (ICCV), ► pp. 13599 ff. DOI logo
OKYAYUZ, Şirin
2021. Altyazı Çevirisinde Teknoloji Destekli Yaratıcılık Açılımı. Çeviribilim ve Uygulamaları Dergisi 2021:30 ► pp. 108 ff. DOI logo
Wang, Yujia, Wei Liang, Haikun Huang, Yongqi Zhang, Dingzeyu Li & Lap-Fai Yu
2021. Proceedings of the 2021 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems, ► pp. 1 ff. DOI logo
BOZKURT, Sinem & Şirin OKYAYUZ
2020. Türkiye’de Sağır ve İşitme Engelli Çocuklar için Ayrıntılı Altyazı Çevirisi Hakkında Bir Araştırma: Uygulamada Sadeleştirme. Çeviribilim ve Uygulamaları Dergisi :29 ► pp. 139 ff. DOI logo
Szarkowska, Agnieszka & Olivia Gerber-Morón
2019. Two or three lines: a mixed-methods study on subtitle processing and preferences. Perspectives 27:1 ► pp. 144 ff. DOI logo

This list is based on CrossRef data as of 4 december 2025. Please note that it may not be complete. Sources presented here have been supplied by the respective publishers. Any errors therein should be reported to them.

Mobile Menu Logo with link to supplementary files background Layer 1 prag Twitter_Logo_Blue