Audio description

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The ultimate game experience for blind World Cup fans

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With the largest sporting event in the world, the FIFA World Cup, starting in Brazil on 12 June (13 June Australian time), with an estimated billion people expected to watch the final alone, there will also be millions of disabled football fans tuning in.

Audio description of live events on television is very rare, and most blind football fans will follow the World Cup via radio coverage where commentators give some visual description of the action.  However, for those blind and vision impaired ticket holders attending matches in Sao Paulo, Rio de Janeiro, Brasilia and Belo Horizonte, FIFA is offering special descriptive commentary via short-range radio inside the stadiums.

Taxonomy: 
General
Television
Blind or vision impaired
Audio description

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Irish regulator suggests modest audio description targets

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The Irish broadcasting regulator, the Broadcasting Authority of Ireland, has commenced a consultation period looking at possible changes to the access rules governing television in Ireland. The rules cover subtitling (captioning), audio description and Irish sign language and include suggested targets for each area.

Included in this is a requirement for an audio description service on the National Television and Radio Broadcaster, RTE, with an initial target of 1.5% of programming, growing to 2.5% of programming by 2018. This equates to less than one hour per day and contrasts with the UK, where Irish channels source a lot of programs and which has a target of 10% and actual services of double and even triple that quota on some channels.

Taxonomy: 
General
Television
Captions
Audio description

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Audio description seminar calls for papers

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The 5th Advanced Research Seminar on Audio Description (ARSAD) will be held in Barcelona on 19-20 March, 2015, and organisers are calling on experts and researchers in the field to submit papers for it.

The seminar, which was first held in 2007, is organised by the TransMedia Catalonia Research Group and the EU project HBB4ALL (Hybrid Broadcast Broadband For All) and is partially funded by the Spanish government. It “aims to bring together practitioners and researchers in order to advance the knowledge of current Audio Description (AD) practices and research”.

Taxonomy: 
General
Research & policy
Blind or vision impaired
Audio description

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The digital accessible cinema chain: Part 1 – The overall picture and stakeholders

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In this three-part series, Media Access Australia project manager Ally Woodford looks at the stakeholders and roles they play in making movies accessible.

The path a movie takes from its concept to delivery on screen can take many years, whether it is a Hollywood ‘blockbuster’ produced by a major movie studio or an independent movie produced on a limited budget. Filming and post-production alone may take18 months and accessibility of the end result will not be a consideration during this time.

Taxonomy: 
General
Cinema
News
Blind or vision impaired
Deaf or hearing impaired
Captions
Audio description

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Audio description to be celebrated at US conference

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The Third Audio Description Project Conference, to be held in Las Vegas next month, will highlight how audio description continues to develop as an essential service for the blind and vision impaired.

Up to 1,500 blind people are expected to attend the conference, which is an initiative of the American Council of the Blind. The sessions will cover a wide range of topics, including audio description standards, advocacy to make the service more visible, audio description for the performing arts and museums, audio description in Spanish and how to become an audio describer.

Taxonomy: 
General
Television
Blind or vision impaired
Audio description

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Developments in audio described video on demand

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Canadian company Zagga TV is the latest initiative to provide blind and vision impaired viewers with a comprehensive, audio described video on demand service.  

Zagga TV, which is based in Toronto, was founded by Kevin Shaw, who has been blind since the age of 19. According to its website, it will be offering “a fully accessible video on demand subscription service with first-rate movies and TV shows featuring high-quality described video, uncut and commercial free”.

Taxonomy: 
General
Video
News
Blind or vision impaired
Audio description

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Sydney Opera House unveils its 2014 Access Program

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One of the world’s most iconic performance spaces has launched a new program of services and initiatives to ensure people with disabilities experience the same access to arts as their family and friends. The Sydney Opera House’s 2014 Access Program will provide captioning and audio description among other services for a range of productions throughout the year.

Highlights of the program include the addition of live captioning of the digital education program via video conferencing for students and an audio description smartphone app for patrons attending performances. The Opera House is also working on captioning its past Talks and Ideas videos on its online video portal as well as future uploads.

Taxonomy: 
General
Cinema
The arts
Captions
Audio description

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Audio desciption at the Adelaide Festival

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The annual Adelaide Festival, considered one of the world’s best celebrations of the arts, kicks off on 28 February with a program full of audio described events for people who are blind or vision impaired.

Five theatre performances will be audio described by newly established Adelaide access company 

Taxonomy: 
General
Cinema
The arts
Blind or vision impaired
Audio description
News alert taxonomy: 
Blind/vision impaired TV, DVD, Cinema & the Arts news

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New tool adds audio description to YouTube videos

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Blind or vision impaired people will have an additional way to access audio description services on YouTube videos through a new experimental online software program, YouDescribe.

Audio description is an additional audio track that provides a description on the visual elements of a video, TV broadcast or performance. Unlike closed captions, which are becoming widespread across the web, audio described videos are rarely available online.

Taxonomy: 
General
Video
Audio description
News alert taxonomy: 
Blind/vision impaired TV, DVD, Cinema & the Arts news

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Access conference comes to Brisbane

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Registrations for the 2014 Round Table on Information Access for People with Print Disabilities are now open. The annual conference focuses on how the changing technology landscape affects and benefits those with vision and perception related disabilities.

The theme of this year’s conference is ‘putting the person at the centre’. The program states that “Person-centred approaches empower people with a print disability by positioning them at the centre of policy, decision-making and service planning and delivery.” The four-day event covers topics such as Braille, web access, entertainment and education.

Taxonomy: 
General
Television
Audio description
Digital technology
Web
News
News alert taxonomy: 
Blind/vision impaired TV, DVD, Cinema & the Arts news
Blind/vision impaired Digital Technology & Online Media news

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