Directing in reverse

Audio Description (AD) makes visual media accessible to blind and partially sighted people by adding a verbal commentary transforming visual information on screen into a written script, orally delivered. Ofcom Guidelines for AD suggest the primary concern of the describer should be to convey the intellectual argument of the narrative and the main visual images. There are no separate guidelines for Film and no emphasis on conveying the full filmic experience. Early anecdotal evidence suggested AD users were not interested in, and even distanced, by the use of filmic language. But this approach to AD omits crucial elements, transmitted through camera shots and movement, which are part of a specific filmic language. Directors use this language to control our visual field, manipulating our response to the images we are viewing. This paper proposes an alternative approach that allows blind people to access not only the “what” but also the “how” in terms of visual story-telling – via a process which is essentially “Directing in Reverse”.