Audio description of taboo. A descriptive and comparative approach

Audio description is an emergent Audiovisual Translation modality which aims to provide accessibility to blind or partially sighted people. In this article, we focus on one of the most universal taboo topic, sex, and how it is audio described in commercial films. Following a descriptive methodology, we tackle the sexual references present in films with audio description in English and Spanish, and find out the way and manner in which taboo elements referred to sex cross the intersemiotic barriers. Firstly, we identify the sexual elements in the films (sexual acts, sexual organs, nudity etc.) and the strategies used to audio describe them: using taboo language, euphemization or even omission. Then, we highlight the differences in the way sexual references are described, trying to determine the reasons which led the describers to make those decisions.