Audio description and interpreting studies. Complexities beyond practice

This chapter presents a new approach to research that seeks to better understand and account for end-user experiences of an audio-visual translation (AVT) event. As with Interpreting Studies (IS), the focus of much Audio Description (AD) research to date has been to consider the output of practice and its communicative effect on end-user reception. That is, the importance of the AVT process and practice. In the case of AD, end-user reception has been measured in terms of comprehension of the description or the source text. Research has also considered the quality of output (the description), the concerns of practitioners (such as standards and processes), and the professionalisation of practice. In many instances, this research focus has resulted in improved practice by raising the quality of the output. This echoes key contributions in IS. However, this approach has meant that the full range of end-user experiences of AD has not been well understood or accounted for in research to date. AD end-users have identified that many of the barriers which adversely impact on their experience are situated beyond practice and process. Recent research indicates that a cluster of services and contexts impact the overall end-user experience of AD, where the professionalisation of practice and process may not adequately address those barriers. This chapter therefore suggests exploring the embodied end-user experience as a whole, rather than end-user ‘experience’ being measured in terms of comprehension of a source text. Complicating understandings of the limitations of the practice/process focus may also prove productive in the IS field.