Media4ALL4

Here’s the abstract of a conference presentation I prepared with Iwona Mazur for the 4th Media for All Conference in London.

Taking stock of audio description preferences in Poland: A reception study


Audio description (AD) reception research, or collection of feedback from the blind and partially sighted as the target audience of audio described films, seems to be one of the best sources of information to be applied when creating both AD standards and audio descriptions proper. To date, the two most prominent examples of such research have been the AUDETEL project, aimed at the development of AD guidelines, and the “Bollywood for All” project, involving ‘market research’ for Bollywood productions (Rai 2009), both carried out in the UK.

In the paper we will discuss the design and results of a large-scale reception study carried out in Poland as part of the AD-Verba project aimed at the development of Polish AD standards reflecting the preferences of the blind and visually impaired viewers. The participants were interviewed according to a questionnaire which consisted of three parts and altogether comprised over 30 questions. The first part concerned general information about the viewers, such as their age, education, type of visual impairment, viewing habits, etc. In the second part the participants were presented with three AD samples and were asked both comprehension questions as well as questions concerning their preferences when it comes to the presented descriptions (e.g. their length, the amount of detail, audio describer’s interpretation, the use of evaluative adjectives, the use of similes, certain grammar choices, etc.). The third part included questions on their general AD preferences, e.g. the gender of the voice talent reading the AD, synchronization of AD with the image or the use of colors in AD. All in all, it is hope that thanks to the study we will gain greater insight into how blind and visually-impaired persons perceive visual images accompanied by descriptions, and thus it will be possible to produce ADs which better reflect their preferences.