Cross-fertilization between reception studies in audio description and interpreting quality assessment. The role of the describer's voice

This paper examines the quality expectations of audio description (AD) users. The authors distinguish between the a priori preferences of users and their actual quality assessment of specific audio described scenes taken from the film The Hours and set out to compare both. This is achieved through a truly interdisciplinary approach, drawing on the methodology and findings from experimental studies in interpreting quality assessment. The focus of the reception study presented in this chapter is on the perception of the nonverbal qualities of the audio describer's voice, in particular on vocal sonority qualities and its emotional correlates. With this emphasis, the aim of the authors is to question the assumption that the describer's voice best serves the interests of the viewers if it is kept neutral, as is often argued in official guidelines and literature on AD. Their findings show that quality expectations do not match actual quality assessment in situated contexts and that users seem to favour non-neutral vocal quality in AD. The results of this study reveal other factors to be considered in the quality assessment provided by viewers, namely their previous exposure to the practices being evaluated and the general availability of such practices.