Audio description provides equal access to arts events

23 December 2009
“Our culture today is becoming increasingly visual and less text-oriented,” Mary Schnackenberg told participants at an audio description seminar at Te Papa in December. “But for blind people, pictures are of no use. We need the words.”

Mary, Principal Director of Accessible Information and Communications Ltd, said that audio description provides the necessary words by describing visual images such as a painting, a glass bowl, an orchestra or live theatre. It means that people who are blind or vision impaired can enjoy equal access to arts events.
Galleries and museums often provide pre-recorded information about exhibitions. However, Mary said, they generally assume that visitors can actually see what they’re describing. Additional information such as the size of the work, the colours and the materials are important.

In live theatre, audio description uses the natural pauses in dialogue to describe what is happening on stage: for instance, the characters, costumes, setting and action. Audience members wear hand-held receivers and headphones while an audio describer sits in a sound-proof booth and provides a live description.

Audio description does not disturb other audience members, and Mary said it was important not to destroy the experience for sighted theatre-goers.

Audio describers need to remove themselves and their opinions from the commentary and describe only what they see – not what they’re thinking.

“When you're describing something visual, you have to pick and choose what you describe,” Mary said. “One of the most important skills is self-analysis and the ability to appreciate how other people and cultures may see the world.

“If you try to describe something emotional or something you feel uncomfortable about, it will be a disaster.”

Questions to ask

Some questions to ask before setting up an audio described performance project:

• Have you built the audio description costs into a funding bid?
• Which of your performances will be audio described?
• How will you market the service and attract this new audience?
• What aspects of the play – set, costumes and non-verbal information during the performance – should be described?
• Is there a sound-proof space where the audio describer can narrate and have full view of the stage?
• What training can you arrange for the audio describers?
• Can you wire each actor for sound and mix their voices with the audio describer’s narrative?
• Do you have the technology to transmit the audio description around the theatre to audience members wearing headphones?
• Can you provide a touch tour of the set before the audio described performances?

Providing an opportunity for blind or vision impaired audiences to meet the director, cast and audio describer after the performance will “complete the circle”, Mary says. That way, they can really understand the difference they have made in enhancing the performance for their audience.