Audio Description
The Basics
Audio Description (AD) is a spoken narration soundtrack that describes important visual details such as scene changes, characters, actions, on-screen text, and other visual content. (Of all accessibility features, Audio Description is probably most considered its own artform, with a very specific skill set.) AD is an audio file that functions as an alternative to visual information and is primarily used by people who are blind or have low vision.
Examples
Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater: Chroma, Grace, Takademe, Revelations
Alvin Ailey’s signature masterpiece, 'Revelations,' pays homage to and reflects African-American cultural heritage, which Ailey considered one of America’s richest treasures – “sometimes sorrowful, sometimes jubilant, but always hopeful.” Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater performs 'Revelations,' 'Chroma,' 'Grace,' and 'Takademe' in this 2015 rebroadcast.
Candoco Dance Company: Cuckoo
Cuckoo is a visually striking and playful dance film from Candoco Dance Company, inspired by a bespoke prosthetic leg created by Sophie de Oliveira Barata of The Alternative Limb Project, for dancer Welly O’Brien. This unique limb is carved from cherry wood and features a working cuckoo clock and pendulum. This short choreography for camera is a reflection on our changing experience of time passing, set to a poetic musical score by Jules Maxwell. Cuckoo is co-produced by Sadler’s Wells and Candoco Dance Company and made in collaboration with The Alternative Limb Project.
Learn More
Creative Approaches to Audio Description
Audio Description in the Making Exhibition
The Audio Description in the Making Exhibition was an exhibition, curated by Cheryl Green and Thomas Reid, hosted by the Access in the Making Lab at Concordia University in Montreal, QB. Their curatorial statement centers their artistic perspective towards AD:
“Audio Description (AD) is usually defined as a way to make TV, films, theater, and other art and media content accessible to blind and low vision audiences. In this standardized approach, AD is often reduced to an add-on that gets created only after artworks are finished. AD and the artwork, in other words, remain distinct. Instead of keeping AD apart from the artwork, Green and Reid asked: why not consider AD as an art form in and of itself? Beginning from a place that centers the experiences of those who are Blind and recognizes the art in audio description, the workshop invited participants to reflect critically both on visual information and to view it as more than mere access. It encouraged creativity not only through describing an image or object but recognizing how description can generate new art.” (Green et al., 2021)
Audio Description Resources
Audio Description is a particularly unique artwork that has been creatively explored more than any other accessibility feature. Check out these resources, if you are interested in learning more about the art of Audio Description:
Audio Description: An Art Form In Its Own Right - Disability Arts Online
Turning Sights into Sounds: The Art of Audio Descriptions | Equal Entry
'Ways Of Seeing Art' Booklet | Shape Arts | Ways of Seeing Art: Exploring the Link Between Art and Audio Description by Shape Arts - Issuu
Visual Descriptions | MoMA (This includes recording of artwork description, along with their transcription.)
Art in Motion (Audio Description) | The Metropolitan Museum of Art
Accessibility in Museums: The Art of Writing Audio Descriptions
(PDF) Audio Description of Art: The Role of Mental Imagery and Embodiment