AudYD
Participatory creation of audio descriptions related to practical or recreational needs
Languages and IT
Objectives
Provide blind people with increased access to audio-described films in languages other than English through the creation of audio descriptions by volunteers. Advance research on the translatability of audio descriptions in order to widen the language choice.
Specific actions
Organise meetings of blind and non-blind people to define the needs. Introduce volunteers to creating non-English audio-descriptions on YouDescribe (youdescribe.org); blind people will test the results. Create a corpus similar to QuerYD (colibris.link/YD).
Project completed
Mainland France
Paris (France)
Type of project : Field, online
Participation period : The meetings between blind and non-blind people will take place on two or three defined dates within a period of roughly three months. The audio descriptions can be created online depending on the availability of the participants.
Level of involvement : Case by case
Project description
The researcher’s statement:
The AudYD project aims to advance the social inclusion of blind and visually impaired people. Currently, this population does not have sufficient access to audio-described films in a language other than English. The creation of audio descriptions is very expensive. The involvement of volunteers could, on the one hand, make it possible to increase the supply of audio-described films and, on the other hand, raise awareness among non-blind people for the cause of blind people. To this end, it seems appropriate to have non-blind volunteers create audio descriptions on the free platform YouDescribe. Ideally, their descriptions will take into account the needs of visually impaired people. These needs may be recreational, social or practical.
Participants’ testimonies:
The people involved in this research would be the creators of audio descriptions, as well as visually impaired people whose role would be to help define the needs and evaluate the created audio descriptions and the tools developed.
The genesis of the project :
This project could be launched as soon as a sufficient number of blind (at least three) and non-blind (at least six, representing several languages, including German and French) people commit themselves to participate.
The participation
Training required
Audio description creation training will be provided by the project leader. The training will be provided by the project leader. For people able to understand English it is highly recommended to follow the Futurelearn Mooc on audio description creation. This online course lasts 4 weeks (3 hours per week to be invested). It is free until 6 August 2022. https://www.futurelearn.com/courses/creating-audio-description-for-equality-diversity-and-inclusion
Required equipment
Non-blind participants should ideally have access to a computer. Alternatively, an iPad or iPhone can be used. Blind people can also use a computer or an iPad or iPhone. The participants will need a gmail address to connect to YouDescribe.
Co-managers
Eva Schaeffer-Lacroix
Enseignante-chercheuse
Sorbonne University
STIH
Eva Schaeffer-Lacroix
Partners
