“Guidance but not the ultimate commandment”. Pros and cons of using pivot templates in the audio description production workflow

The need for audio-described audiovisual content is mainly growing due to statutory accessibility required in many countries. Regrettably, despite the popular and legal demand for audio description, broadcasters and producers perceive audio description (AD) as an expensive service with little profit potential. Audio Description Translation (ADT) is an alternative production model that can reduce the time and costs involved in AD production while maintaining quality and increasing the availability of audio-described content in multiple languages. Drawing on a widespread practice of using (pivot) templates in modern subtitling workflows, this article investigates the use of pivot templates in audio description, focusing on the advantages and disadvantages of this production model as perceived by audio description translators. Data was collected in an experiment where six participants, five subtitlers, and an audio describer were asked to translate audio descriptions for Spanish films into Polish via an English pivot template. Results based on the thematic analysis of post-task interviews identify two main advantages: (1) personal advantages for the professionals performing the task and (2) external advantages that can benefit, for example, the production workflow, product, and target audience. The personal advantages are reduced time, effort, and responsibility. The external advantages are enhanced script quality and consistency.