Audio description with audio subtitling – an emergent modality of audiovisual localisation

Abstract

Audio description (AD) has established itself as a media access service for blind and partially sighted people across a range of countries, for different media and types of audiovisual performance (e.g. film, TV, theatre, opera). In countries such as the UK and Spain, legislation has been implemented for the provision of AD on TV, and the European Parliament has requested that AD for digital TV be monitored in projects such as DTV4ALL (www.psp-dtv4all.org) in order to be able to develop adequate European accessibility policies. One of the drawbacks is that in their current form, AD services largely leave the visually impaired community excluded from access to foreign-language audiovisual products when they are subtitled rather than dubbed. To overcome this problem, audio subtitling (AST) has emerged as a solution. This article will characterise audio subtitling as a modality of audiovisual localisation which is positioned at the interface between subtitling, audio description and voice-over. It will argue that audio subtitles need to be delivered in combination with audio description and will analyse, systematise and exemplify the current practice of audio description with audio subtitling using commercially available DVDs.

Keywords:

• audio description
• audio subtitling
• subtitling
• voice-over
• audiovisual translation

Acknowledgements

This article is part of the research for the EU project DTV4ALL http://www.psp-dtv4all.org/.

Notes

1. We can only speculate on the reasons for the initial scepticism. It may have arisen from what could broadly be subsumed under resistance to change, including a perception that an audio describer knows best what the audience needs are, and that research interferes with this knowledge.

2. http://www.psp-dtv4all.org/.

3. In a viewing experiment conducted by the RNIB, the majority of visually impaired people reported difficulties in understanding the audio-subtitled version of this film (Joan Greening, personal communication), and this experience is matched by the authors’ own attempt to follow the sound track of the audio-subtitled version without watching the images.

4. Franco, Matamala and Orero (2011) have described this type of voiceover translation as follows: ‘The main characteristic of a Gavrilov translation of a fiction film … is that, although the original might contain various characters, males and females, the voice-over is generally performed by a single voice talent, usually male, who depicts a very fast paced discourse, usually overlapping the original dialogue – which can be partially heard – and expressing no emotions’.