Audio description of films. State of the art and a protocol proposal

In the new Ofcom guidelines (2006) on the provision of television access services, audio description is defined as "a service primarily aimed at enhancing meaning and enjoyment of television services for blind or partially sighted viewers. It comprises a commentary woven around the soundtrack, exploiting pauses to explain on-screen action, describe characters, locations, costumes, body language and facial expressions". This latest guideline, as with most of the existing guidelines, may be considered as a draft since they all share the wish to standardize and advise in the process of writing an audio description (AD), though they still remain vague leaving much to personal decision and taste. This type of intersemiotic transfer is the object of study in this article, where we analyze some of the many existing AD guidelines for films. After the comparative work, we shall focus on the areas which will need further research giving rise to a proposed protocol or guidelines which may be useful for future research and work.