Devynne Best: Midterm Portfolio – #4 Audio Description

The Project

Project Description 

For this project, I took the same footage from the creative captions project and worked on the accessibility for those who are visually impaired. This was through me integrating audio descriptions into the work.

Documentation 

For the project, I decided to create audio descriptions for the same video as my creative captions. 

Firstly, I rewatched the video, noting the different visual details that would be important to describe and this became my first draft of my script.

After getting some feedback from class, I went back and edited the script. Specifically, I separated the different scenes and wrote descriptions of the settings that would be read the beginning of each scene.

I watched an example of a video with audio descriptions to get inspired on how I should implement my descriptions.

I then recorded the audio descriptions separately and then added the audio file to the project. After that I split the audio into the different sections and integrated them into the video.

Reflection Questions

The theme of this work is to make a video piece more accessible to people who are blind or have any other visual impairments.

This theme is expressed through the use of audio description within the video and implementing them in a way that aligns with the story being told.

I think that in my piece, the visual details are expressed well, especially pointing attention to the most important visual aspects of the story. Some visuals can be easily looked over like the book titles. All of them were about relaxation and it was a funny aspect of the story that could be overlooked if one isn’t fully paying attention.

I think that certain visual elements are lost through the audio descriptions. When making audio descriptions you have to have them be shorter and simple to not make the story too long and drawn out or take away from the natural flow of the story. With this many smaller details that aren’t really as important tend to be overlooked.

This project might exclude people with auditory processing disorders. I found myself speaking somewhat quickly especially for the inline descriptions. There was also overlapping music and audio descriptions which I felt helped with the flow and to make it seem more integrated in the project but that might be overwhelming to some of the audience. 

Maybe providing a transcript might help with this issue so they can listen and also read along. I know That sometimes when I need to focus on readings I like to both read and listen so that might help those who have those types of processing issues.

Additional Modality (if applicable) 

What modality did you apply? 

How did you decide on this modality?

What does the beholder gain from this additional modality? Why? 

Does the beholder lose anything from this modality? What? 

Show documentation of this modality, and describe it if it’s not accessible on a screen (ie, if it’s tactile if it’s a scent)