Emirates has worked closed with Walt Disney Studios to supply closed captioned content since 2007. In the month of August alone, there will be over 50 movies with closed captions for the Deaf and hearing impaired. To continue Emirates’ commitment to exceptional customer service, audio description will be introduced on 16 Disney movies, allowing people with vision impairment to listen to the visual narration soundtrack.
Audio description is an audio track of narration which describes the visual elements of a video or performance. It is an essential access tool for people who are blind or have low vision, and is growing in availability around the world.
Below is an audio described scene from The Hunger Games.
Access to media and technology is key to improving learning outcomes for students who are blind or have low vision.
The ruling will provide a consistent approach across the United States for cinemas to exhibit closed captioned and audio described movies. While the majority of movies released by American studios have captions and audio description, the number of cinemas making use of these features is varies widely across the country.
Some of the rulemaking inclusions are:
Ofcom conducts an annual mid-year review of access requirements, based on each channel’s revenue and audience share in the previous year. Following this year’s review, 79 domestic channels will be required to provide access services in 2015, compared to 76 in 2014. This accounts for over 90% of the total UK audience share.
The 21st Century Communications and Video Accessibility Act of 2010 gave the FCC the power to reinstate audio description quotas for television, which it did in 2011. Currently, commercial stations affiliated with the top four networks in the top 25 markets must provide 50 hours of audio described prime time or children’s programs per quarter.
The conference brings together audio describers, consumers, policymakers and other experts to discuss the current state of audio description and how the service could be improved and extended. This year there are sessions about the ways that audio description can aid literacy; audio description for broadcast television, the performing arts and museums; and audio description in Spanish.
ATRAE, the Spanish Association of Audiovisual Translation and Adaptation, represents all areas of audiovisual translation and adaptation, from translation subtitling and access services to dubbing, voiceover and video game translation. This was the second ATRAE awards, and the first time that Red Bee Media has won one of them.
The post of Executive Director was advertised in summer of 2004 and I was appointed in September, so it’s jolly nearly ten years.
