Audio description as an aesthetic innovation. If your eyes could speak

Audio Description (AD) is a translation of images to words — the visual is made verbal and aural (he points to his ear), and oral (he points to his mouth). Thus, AD makes visual images accessible for people who are blind or have low vision. But how does one incorporate accessibility—audio description, in particular—in ways that are essential to the artistic expression, not simply an "add-on" or retrofit to a work of art? The theory of inclusive design describes one common approach to accessibility. The main tenets are: 1) the designers consider as many different human abilities, limitations and needs as possible; and 2) these factors should be included from the beginning of the design process. While AD may benefit a wide audience, it is rarely considered from the beginning of an artistic process. For instance, as a post-production activity (similar to other localization accommodations like subtitling or dubbing) many filmmakers have limited awareness of the existence of AD and even less understanding of the latest research which suggests how the access technique can be incorporated within the development of a film. This paper/presentation will demonstrate not only the practicality of AD as an approach to translating visual images to a sense form that is accessible to people who are blind or have limited vision; the session will share recent video projects that include access as a part of the whole following the tenets of inclusive design. Members of these creative teams "build in" accessibility as part of the production process eliminating the need to add a separate layer after the fact. The production then become accessible to a wider audience; it allows artists to meet an obligation for inclusion while incorporating innovative techniques thus increasing the production’s aesthetic viability.