[Athen] Guidane on Audio Description

[Gaeir Dietrich]

Not sure if this was answered already, so apologies if it was…

 

The first thing to understand is the difference between captions and audio description (also sometimes called video description).

 

Captioning is synchronized text of the sound in the video. This text includes dialogue, pertinent sound information (e.g., slamming doors, barking dogs, music, etc.), and speaker identification. The text can be made available as either open (always on) or closed (can be turned on and off) captions. Captioning is primarily for individuals who have hearing impairments or auditory processing issues.

 

Audio description is a brief description of visual elements in the video. For videos created by instructors, I recommend that they describe what they are doing, as they are doing it, and verbalize anything that is being written. In commercial films, description of the “action” and any purely visual elements is also required. Audio description is primarily for individuals with visual impairments.

 

So when do you need captioning and when do you need audio description? 

 

As an accommodation, you would provide whichever is needed by the individual. 

 

For full access, both are preferred, but when we are talking about “after-market” accessibility, captioning is by far the easier of the two. For those of us who are required to comply with the Section 508 standards, both are required—although you can provide a text description back-up in lieu of the audio description in those cases where audio description is not feasible.

 

What we generally expect in our system is captioning of videos with a text back-up for the audio description.

 

Hope this helps.

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

Gaeir (rhymes with "fire") Dietrich
HTCTU Director
408-996-6047

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

 

From: athen-list [mailto:athen-list-bounces at mailman13.u.washington.edu] On Behalf Of Corrine Schoeb
Sent: Monday, May 08, 2017 6:47 AM
To: athen-list at u.washington.edu
Subject: [Athen] Guidane on Audio Description

 

Trying to wrap my head around when we need to provide Audio Descriptions and when Captioning is sufficient.  

 

Do you have any guidelines about questions you ask yourself when trying to determine this?

 

-- 

 

Corrine Schoeb
Technology Accessibility Coordinator, ITS

610-957-6208

 

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