麻豆直播

It鈥檚 a stormy summer evening and two picnickers are watching the sun set over the ocean. One is filled with joy, moved by what she sees. The other expresses worry as the dark storm clouds roll in.

No two people will ever witness a scene in exactly the same way. Cultural bias, personal preference and life experience all impact the way we view the world around us. This can present interesting challenges for those whose job it is to narrate the visual.

Curtin Associate Professor Katie Ellis has been researching the art of narration through her work into audio description.

鈥淎udio description (AD) is a track of narration between lines of dialogue that describes important visual elements of a television show or movie, to audiences who are blind or vision impaired,鈥� she explains.

鈥淏ut it鈥檚 very cultural. For example, the American style of AD is really over-the-top exciting and very descriptive, while the English style is much more reserved. They鈥檒l just describe the picture and leave it up to the audience to interpret emotion.鈥�

Is AD available in Australia?

Audio description has been around for years, but Australia remains the only English-speaking country in the OECD not to offer the service on free-to-air television.

鈥淢any people are unaware the technology exists as it鈥檚 not available on television,鈥� Ellis says. 鈥淎nd it鈥檚 not on television perhaps because people don鈥檛 know what it is. It鈥檚 a catch-22 situation.鈥�

But the conversation is changing. In 2017, the Federal Government convened the Audio Description Working Group to discuss options for introducing AD to Australian screens. Ellis and fellow Associate Professor Mike Kent are the only two academics to take part. The group have released a report which recommends three possible delivery options 鈥� via free-to-air television, on catch-up online portals, or via a secondary app that could be synced with audio during television viewing.

鈥淭here鈥檚 been a lot of progress,鈥� Ellis says. 鈥淭he Minister for Communications wrote to all the broadcasters and asked them to start looking into ways to introduce audio description. AD is now available on Netflix, Stan and Apple TV. You can access it on flights with Qantas and Virgin and we鈥檙e even seeing it used at live events.鈥�

DADAA (Disability in the Arts Disadvantage in the Arts) is one organisation leading the charge.

鈥淒ADAA is really pushing boundaries in this space,鈥� Ellis says. 鈥淭hey鈥檙e audio describing festivals, fireworks, parades of sports teams who have won grand finals. You go to the event and DADAA have an app that you can download and use on your phone 鈥� or they can provide a phone for you.

鈥淔or the Australia Day fireworks in Perth, they have a quiet space set up on the banks of the river specifically for those who are blind or vision impaired.

鈥淲e鈥檙e definitely making progress 鈥� I even heard of an audio described drag show in Adelaide!鈥�

Spreading the word

While AD is broadly recognised as benefitting the vision-impaired community, it has advantageous applications for many other groups, including those with autism spectrum disorder (ASD), students, language learners and even ardent television fans.

鈥淪omething I find very interesting about AD is its ability to give you information about what鈥檚 on screen that you may otherwise miss,鈥� Ellis explains.

鈥淒escribing emotion can be very helpful to people with ASD 鈥� as well as narrating other cues they might miss out on.鈥�

Ellis is quick to point out that AD is not a 鈥榦ne size fits all鈥� approach.

鈥淲e recently worked with an ASD focus group and they had different perspectives on what was useful. Some people said that AD, in addition to captions, could be sensory overload.

鈥淪o it鈥檚 about providing information in different ways and then giving people the option of whether or not they want to access those channels.鈥�

Ellis says AD has proved popular among TV enthusiasts who use the technology to enhance their own viewing.

鈥淭hese days we鈥檙e binge-watching a lot of complex shows,鈥� she says. 鈥淵ou might not realise while watching Daredevil that there is someone over the shoulder of the main character wearing a red cape, or there may be particular emotions you don鈥檛 pick up on.

鈥淧eople on Twitter said the only way they could make sense of the show Sense8 was through listening to audio description. It can introduce character names you otherwise wouldn鈥檛 know for several episodes and can connect the story together in a way that you might miss.鈥�

As well as changing and shaping the way we consume content, AD can also add rich layers of character.

鈥淎ustralian filmmaking is very visual,鈥� Ellis explains. 鈥淭hanks to audio description of Australian cinema, we鈥檙e seeing how the landscape becomes another character within the show.鈥�

A captive audience

Alongside research into AD, Ellis and a team that includes Associate Professor Mike Kent, Dr Leanne McRae, Dr Gwyneth Peaty, Kathryn Locke and Kai-Ti Kao, are exploring the use of captions as a learning tool.

鈥淲e鈥檙e currently looking at how students use captions and whether or not students without hearing impairments derive benefit from them too,鈥� Ellis reveals.

鈥淲e鈥檝e captioned lectures for certain units and noticed students are using the captions to search for keywords to help them revise. It鈥檚 also been useful if the lecturer has a strong accent or speaks very quickly.鈥�

Ellis is a passionate advocate for making content accessible to all.

鈥淓veryone learns in different ways 鈥� some people are more visual and others more oral, so it鈥檚 really important to provide different options for accessing information.

鈥淭hanks to captions and the increasing use of audio description, I鈥檓 feeling really positive about where we鈥檙e headed.鈥�