Film language, film experience and film interpretation in a reception study comparing conventional and interpretative audio description styles

This chapter reports on a reception study conducted in Catalonia to explore how AD style might affect the film experience of blind and partially sighted viewers: we tested a conventional AD and two interpretative styles (cinematic AD and narrative AD) with three groups of blind and partially sighted participants. After exposing our theoretical background and methodological framework, we present our results on film interpretation and AD evaluation with the three AD styles. While all three of them appear adequate to give access to film comprehension and enjoyment, the two interpretative AD styles seem better at transmitting aesthetic and emotional aspects.