Audio description and reception-centred research

This chapter focuses on audio description research from a reception studies perspective. Since its inception into audiovisual translation studies slightly over ten years ago, research on audio description has grown exponentially and, unlike other audiovisual translation techniques and the related research, it has very often placed the needs, priorities and preferences of the end users at its core. After reviewing the tools and methodologies so far employed in reception-centred audio description research, by highlighting their shortcomings and merits, the chapter moves on to identify four major strands in this area. Several experiments and publications are then discussed with reference to each research strand, focusing on their replicability but also reflecting on the role (and dangers) of interdisciplinarity in such an ever-growing field of study.