Term: Audio description
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Term: Audio description
- Definition:
- Audio description, also known as video description in Federal Communications Commission (FCC) rules, provides access to visual information by means of audio-narrated description of key visual elements in a video program for audience members who are blind or have a visual impairment.
Best practices for audio description from the FCC's Disability Advisory Committee (DAC) state that "audio description often cannot convey all of the visual information included in each scene of a video program; therefore, content creators and audio describers necessarily make choices to prioritize the information ultimately included in the description. Those choices seek to convey the intent of the program's creator with the goal of providing audiences with a description that illustrates the visual elements of a story in a manner that provides a comparable experience to that of sighted viewers." The development of audio description for media involves three areas of production: writing, voicing, and audio editing
W3C also has resources for audio description/video description: W3C: Description of Visual Information. See also the FCC Audio Description resources.
Audio descriptions can be inserted into natural pauses in the program's dialogue but also can be extended. Extended audio description temporarily pauses the audio and video to allow critical information to be delivered when pauses in dialogue are insufficient for adequate description. Extended audio description is not preferred but it is implemented for a variety of reasons including technical experience, resources or just the complexity of the content.
Methods for providing audio description include:
Integrated: Can work well for some types of new videos if the speakers can describe the relevant visual information as the video is recorded.
Media player support (or plug in) for a timed text file such as WebVTT in which the audio description information is read aloud and linked to the essence timeline. Some players also support other text-based formats such as plain text (.txt) and Microsoft Office word processing formats (.doc, .docx).
Separate audio file: Recording a separate audio track with the description information and combining the description information with the original content in a new file. If a separate file is created, typical file formats are WAVE, MP3, MP4, OGG and more depending upon the supporting player and the specifications of the network and/or distributor. The FCC's Disability Advisory Committee (DAC) details technical factors for the audio description track software capability, audio levels, and timing.
Separate video file: Recording a separate video track with the description information and combining the description information with the original content in a new file. If a separate file is created, file formats depend upon the supporting player and the specifications of the network and/or distributor. - Category:
- Video
- Resource:
- FADGI\'s Definitions for Key Accessibility Features for Digital Audiovisual Collections Content
https://www.digitizationguidelines.gov/guidelines/accessibilty_AV_collections.ht - Federal Communications Commission (FCC) rules
https://www.ecfr.gov/current/title-47/chapter-I/subchapter-C/part-79/subpart-A/section-79.3 - FCC Disability Advisory Committee (DAC)
https://fcc.gov/file/19830/download - See also:
- Video description