Audio description for the screen

Our world is increasingly dominated by images which form a visual communication that is not accessed by everyone in the same way, through sight, as the community of visually impaired people are deprived of this iconic information. Audio description (AD) can be defined as the linguistic expression of a multimodal content made up of various codes (iconic, acoustic, linguistic), a kind of intersemiotic translation. This chapter will analyse AD applied to screen products. In our digitalized world, screens occupy a privileged place. From domestic videophones to the screens used for our leisure or screens on our computers or mobile phones to smartwatches; there are advertising screens in malls and shops in general, in the streets and public places like airports, train or subway stations, city council offices and so on. Displays on cash machines and, at a higher level such as the art world, artists who include screens in their works (installation art), or screens in theatrical performances and, of course, in filmic products. The “state of the art” of AD, and its further development will be discussed, also in terms of problems and outstanding issues. Finally, possible future directions for research and practice will be proposed.