A profile of audio description end-users. Linguistic needs and inclusivity

This chapter will focus on audio description (AD) and its principal beneficiaries, the blind and partially sighted community (BPS). The chapter begins by defining blindness and assessing the needs of the BPS. Then, it concentrates on the optimal kind of language to use in description in order to create the highest degree of inclusion while at the same time not pandering to the BPS audience, who have shown their dislike for any kind of compromise or condescension. Inclusion must mean that BPS experience a visual product in as similar a way as possible to a sighted audience, in line with the concept of universal design whereby AD would be a built-in component of an audiovisual product. We will illustrate the preferences, shared needs, wishes and dissatisfactions expressed by the BPS, based on survey results conducted within the EU project ADLAB PRO – elements that we consider should be tackled to ameliorate the service. We will also address the issue of language simplification in AD for audiences with special needs relying on the research carried out within the EU project EASIT. Finally, the issue of non-discriminatory language is discussed before illustrating the future expectations of end-users.