Article published In:
Translation SpacesVol. 7:2 (2018) ► pp.285–303
Audio description in 360º videos
Results from focus groups in Barcelona and Kraków
This article discusses how audio description could be integrated into 360º videos by reporting the results from two focus groups
conducted in the initial stages of the ImAc project. To involve participants in the research process, the project adopted a
user-centered methodology, and a series of focus groups was conducted with professional audio describers and end users to gather
feedback about their needs and expectations regarding the implementation of audio description and, secondarily, audio subtitling.
Results indicate that content selection in this medium raises concerns for audio describers, and needs to be further researched.
The results obtained from the end users not only highlight the need to audio describe the main action, but also their interest in
having different parts of the visual scene audio described. Results also indicate that auditory cues would allow end users to
orient themselves in the scene, and feel more immersed in the content presented.
Keywords: audiovisual translation, media accessibility, user-centered methodology, audio description, immersive media, 360º videos, virtual reality
Article outline
- 1.Introduction
- 2.Virtual environments: Defining 360º videos
- 3.AD in immersive contents
- 4.Methodology
- 4.1Participants
- 4.2Procedure
- 5.Discussion of results
- 5.1Results regarding the production of audio description
- 5.2Results regarding the consumption of audio description
- 6.Conclusions
- Funding
-
References
References (46)
ACB (American Council of the Blind). 2003. ADI AD Guidelines. Accessed July 26, 2018. [URL]
Barbour, Rosaline. 2007. Qualitative Research Kit: Doing Focus Groups. London: SAGE Publications. 
Bleumers, Lizzy, Wendy Van den Broeck, Bram Lievens, and Jo Pierson. 2013. “Extending the Field of View: A Human-Centered Design Perspective on 360° TV.” Behaviour & Information Technology 33 (8): 800–814.
Booton, Jennifer. 2013. “By Tricking the Brain, Disney’s Bringing Digital Sight to the Blind.” Accessed July 27, 2018. [URL]
Braun, Sabine, and Pilar Orero. 2010. “Audio Description with Audio Subtitling: An Emergent Modality of Audiovisual Localization.” Perspectives: Studies in Translatology 18 (3): 173–188.
Bryman, Alan. 2008. Social Research Methods. Oxford, New York: Oxford University Press.
Caro-Cáceres, C. 2011. “Intonation in AD: Does it Affect Users’ Comprehension?”
Paper presented at
4th Media For All
, London, June 28–July 1.
Chmiel, Agnieszka, and Iwona Mazur. 2014. Audiodeskrypcja [Audio description]. Poznań: Wydział Anglistyki UAM.
. 2016. “Researching Preferences of Audio Description Users: Limitations and Solutions.” Across Languages and Cultures 17 (2): 271–288.
Colwell, Chetz, Helen Petrie, Diana Kornbrot, Andrew Hardwick, and Stephen Furner. 1998. “Haptic Virtual Reality for Blind Computer Users.” In Proceedings of the Third International ACM Conference on Assistive Technologies – Assets ’98, Marina del Rey, April 15–17, 92–99. New York: ACM Press.
Di Giovanni, Elena. 2018. “Audio description for live performances and audience participation.” JosTrans: The Journal of Specialised Translation 291: 189–211. Accessed July 26, 2018. [URL]
EBU (European Broadcasting Union). 2017. Virtual Reality: How are Public Broadcasters Using it? Report. Accessed July 26, 2018. [URL]
EC (European Commission). 2015. “Europe 2020 Strategy Policy.” European Commission Website. Accessed July 26, 2018, [URL]
. 2017. “Virtual Reality at the Service of Healthcare.” Executive Agency for Small and Medium-sized Enterprises (EASME) Website. Accessed July 26, 2018. [URL]
Fryer, Louise, and Jonathan Freeman. 2012. “Presence in Those with and without Sight: Audio Description and its Potential for Virtual Reality Applications.” Journal of CyberTherapy & Rehabilitation 5 (1): 15–23. Accessed July 26, 2018. [URL]
Ghali, Neveen I., Omar Soluiman, Nashwa El-Bendary, Tamer M. Nassef, Sara A. Ahmed, Yomma M. Elbarawy, and Aboul Ella Hassanien. 2012. “Virtual Reality Technology for Blind and Visual Impaired People: Reviews and Recent Advances.” In Advances in Robotics and Virtual Reality, edited by Tauseef Gulrez, and Aboul Ella Hassanien, Intelligent Systems Reference Library Series 26: 363–385. Berlin, Heidelberg: Springer.
Gleb, B. n.d.. “VR vs AR vs MR: Differences and Real-Life Applications.” Ruby Garage Blog. Accessed July 26, 2018. [URL]
Greco, Gian Maria. 2016. “On Accessibility as a Human Right, with an Application to Media Accessibility.” In Researching Audio Description: New Approaches, edited by Anna Matamala, and Pilar Orero, 11–33. London: Palgrave Macmillan.
Greening, Joan. 2011. “Do We Need 3D Audio Description Guidelines: Recommendations from Focus Group Study Report.” Accessed July 26, 2018. [URL]
IRT Lab. n.d.. “Interactive Content.” Interactive Lab Website. Accessed July 28, 2018. [URL]
Jankowska, Anna. 2015. Translating Audio Description Scripts: Translation as a New Strategy of Creating Audio Description. Frankfurt am Main: Peter Lang.
Krueger, Richard A. 1998. Focus Group Kit: Moderating Focus Groups. Thousand Oaks: SAGE Publications.
Lessiter, Jane, Jonathan Freeman, Edmund Keogh, and Jules Davidoff. 2001. “A Cross-media Presence Questionnaire: The ITC-Sense of Presence Inventory.” Presence: Teleoperators, and Virtual Environments 10 (3): 282–297.
Lombard, Matthew, and Theresa Ditton. 1997. “At the Heart of it All: The Concept of Presence.” Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication 3 (2).
Manjoo, Farhad. 2014. “If You Like Immersion, You’ll Love This Reality.” The New York Times April 2, 2014. [URL]
Matamala, Anna. 2014. “Chapter 6: Audio Describing Text on Screen.” In Audio Description. New Perspectives Illustrated, edited by Anna Maszerowska, Anna Matamala, and Pilar Orero, 103–120. Amsterdam: John Benjamins.
Mazur, Iwona, and Agnieszka Chmiel. 2016. “Should Audio Description Reflect the Way Sighted Viewers Look at Films? Combining Eye-Tracking and Reception Study Data.” In Researching Audio Description. New Approaches, edited by Anna Matamala, and Pilar Orero, 97–121. London: Palgrave Macmillan.
Ofcom (Office of Communications). 2000. ITC Guidance on Standards for Audio Description. Accessed July 26, 2018. [URL]
Perego, Elisa. 2016. “History, Developments, Challenges and Opportunities of Empirical Research in Audiovisual Translation.” Across Languages and Cultures 17 (2): 155–162.
Picinali, Lorenzo, Christopher Feakes, Andrew Etherington, and Timothy Lloyd. 2011. “VR Interactive Environments for the Blind: Preliminary Comparative Studies.” In Joint Virtual Reality Conference of euroVR and EGVE, 113–115.
Ramos Caro, Marina, and Ana María Rojo López. 2014. “Feeling Audio Description: Exploring the Impact of AD on Emotional Response.” Translation Spaces 3 (1): 133–150.
Remael, Aline, Nina Reviers, and Gert Vercauteren (eds). 2015. Pictures Painted in Words. ADLAB Audio Description Guidelines. Trieste: Edizioni Università di Trieste. Accessed July 26, 2018. [URL]
Reviers, Nina, and Aline Remael. 2015. “Recreating Multimodal Cohesion in Audio Description: A Case Study of Audio Subtitling in Dutch Multilingual Films.” New Voices in Translation Studies 13 (1): 50–78, [URL]
Romero-Fresco, Pablo. 2013. “Accessible Filmmaking: Joining the Dots Between Audiovisual Translation, Accessibility and Filmmaking.” JosTrans: The Journal of Specialised Translation 201: 201–223. Accessed July 26, 2018. [URL]
Saldanha, Gabriela, and Sharon O’Brien. 2013. Research Methodologies in Translation Studies. Manchester: St Jerome Publishing.
Sherman, William R., and Alan B. Craig. 2003. Understanding Virtual Reality: Interface, Application, and Design. The Morgan Kaufmann Series in Computer Graphics. Amsterdam: Morgan Kaufmann Publishers.
Slater, Mel, and Martin Usoh. 1993. “Representations systems, perceptual position, and presence in immersive virtual environments.” Presence: Teleoperators and Virtual Environments 2 (3): 221–233. Cambridge: Massachusetts Institute of Technology Press.
Snyder, Joel. 2008. “Audio Description: The Visual Made Verbal.” In The Didactics of Audiovisual Translation, edited by Jorge Díaz-Cintas, 191–198. Amsterdam/Philadelphia: John Benjamins Publishing.
Szarkowska, Agnieszka, Izabela Krejtz, Krzysztof Krejtz, and Andrew Duchowski. 2013. “Harnessing the Potential of Eye-Tracking for Media Accessibility.” In Translation Studies and Eye-Tracking Analysis, edited by Sambor Grucza, Monika Pluzycka, and Justyna Alnajjar, Warschauer Studien zur Germanistik und zur Angewandten Linguistik Series, 153–183. Frankfurt am Main: Peter Lang.
Udo, John-Patrick, and Deborah I. Fels. 2010a. “The Rogue Poster-Children of Universal Design: Closed Captioning and Audio Description.” Journal of Engineering Design 21 (2–3): 207–221.
. 2010b. “Universal Design on Stage: Live Audio Description for Theatrical Performances.” Perspectives: Studies in Translatology 18 (3): 189–203.
United Nations General Assembly, Resolution 217A, Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR). Accessed July 26, 2018: [URL]
United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs. Division For Inclusive Social Development, Convention A/RES/61/106 2006, Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRDP). Accessed July 26, 2018. [URL]
Viswanathan, Lakshmie Narayan, Troy McDaniel, Sreekar Krishna, and Sethuraman Panchanathan. 2010. “Haptics in Audio Described Movies.” In IEEE International Symposium on Haptic Audio Visual Environments and Games, Phoenix, 1–2.
Whitehead, Jill. 2005. “What is Audio Description?” In Vision 2005: Proceedings of the International Congress held between 4 and 7 April 2005 in London, UK. International Congress Series 1282: 960–963.
Wilken, Nicole, and Jan-Louis Kruger. 2016. “Putting the Audience in the Picture. Mise-en-Shot and Psychological Immersion in Audio Described Film.” Across Languages and Cultures 17 (2): 251–270.
Cited by (12)
Cited by 12 other publications
Brescia-Zapata, Marta & Sarah McDonagh
2024. Exploring the Potential of Media Accessibility as a Pedagogical Tool: Students as Audio Describers. In Transforming Media Accessibility in Europe, ► pp. 317 ff. 
Dang, Khang, Grace Burke, Hamdi Korreshi & Sooyeon Lee
2024. The 26th International ACM SIGACCESS Conference on Computers and Accessibility, ► pp. 1 ff.
Dang, Khang & Sooyeon Lee
2024. The 26th International ACM SIGACCESS Conference on Computers and Accessibility, ► pp. 1 ff.
Van Daele, Tess, Akhil Iyer, Yuning Zhang, Jalyn C Derry, Mina Huh & Amy Pavel
2024. Proceedings of the CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems
, ► pp. 1 ff.
Brescia-Zapata, Marta, Krzysztof Krejtz, Andrew T. Duchowski, Chris J. Hughes & Pilar Orero
2023. Subtitles in VR 360° video. Results from an eye-tracking experiment. Perspectives ► pp. 1 ff.
Dudley, John, Lulu Yin, Vanja Garaj & Per Ola Kristensson
2023. Inclusive Immersion: a review of efforts to improve accessibility in virtual reality, augmented reality and the metaverse. Virtual Reality 27:4 ► pp. 2989 ff.
Jiang, Lucy, Mahika Phutane & Shiri Azenkot
2023. The 25th International ACM SIGACCESS Conference on Computers and Accessibility, ► pp. 1 ff.
Ortiz-Escobar, Luisa Maria, Mario Andres Chavarria, Klaus Schönenberger, Samia Hurst, Michael Ashley Stein, Anthony Mugeere & Minerva Rivas Velarde
2023. Assessing the implementation of user-centred design standards on assistive technology for persons with visual impairments: a systematic review. Frontiers in Rehabilitation Sciences 4
Chang, Ruei-Che, Chao-Hsien Ting, Chia-Sheng Hung, Wan-Chen Lee, Liang-Jin Chen, Yu-Tzu Chao, Bing-Yu Chen & Anhong Guo
2022. Proceedings of the 35th Annual ACM Symposium on User Interface Software and Technology, ► pp. 1 ff.
Fidyka, Anita & Anna Matamala
2021. Retelling narrative in 360° videos: Implications for audio description. Translation Studies 14:3 ► pp. 298 ff.
Hughes, Chris J. & Mario Montagud
2021. Accessibility in 360° video players. Multimedia Tools and Applications 80:20 ► pp. 30993 ff.
Montagud, Mario, Pilar Orero & Anna Matamala
2020. Culture 4 all: accessibility-enabled cultural experiences through immersive VR360 content. Personal and Ubiquitous Computing 24:6 ► pp. 887 ff.
This list is based on CrossRef data as of 8 november 2024. Please note that it may not be complete. Sources presented here have been supplied by the respective publishers. Any errors therein should be reported to them.