Huji.ac.il





Audio Description:

Lifelong Access for the Blind

Progress Report Public PartAudio Description: Lifelong Access for the Blind

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Project information

Project acronym: ADLAB

Project title: Audio Description: Lifelong Access for the Blind

Project number: 517992-LLP-1-2011-1-IT-ERASMUS-ECUE

Sub-programme or KA: ERASMUS Multilateral projects

Cooperation between HEI and Enterprises

Project website: adlabproject.eu

Reporting period: From 01/10/2011

To 31/03/2013

Report version: Version 1

Date of preparation: 16/04/2013

Beneficiary organisation: University of Trieste (IT)

Project coordinator: Christopher Taylor

Project coordinator organisation: University of Trieste (IT)

Project coordinator telephone

number: +39 040 5587603

Project coordinator email address: ctaylor@units.it

This project has been funded with support from the European Commission.

This publication [communication] reflects the views only of the author, and the

Commission cannot be held responsible for any use which may be made of the

information contained therein.

© 2008 Copyright Education, Audiovisual & Culture Executive Agency.

The document may be freely copied and distributed provided that no modifications are made, that the source is acknowledged and that this copyright notice is included.Audio Description: Lifelong Access for the Blind

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Executive Summary

One of the most innovative and useful developments that has taken place over the

last twenty years has been the introduction of audio description (AD) into all kinds

of audiovisual products. With this method, the blind and visually impaired can hear

descriptions of films, television programmes, theatre performances, museum

exhibits, etc. and thus participate more fully in the wealth of experience provided by

audiovisual means. However, progress in this field is very varied across the

European spectrum, ranging from contexts in which AD is an accepted part of many

audiovisual packages (e.g., in the UK, in Spain) and other contexts where the

process is unknown or rare. The project will attempt to close those gaps through a

mixture of applied research, experimenting, creating products with a view to

standardising procedures across the continent, and reaching out to stakeholders in

the industry, in higher education and within the blind community itself. Indeed the

blind and visually impaired communities form the main target group of ADLAB as the

final end-users of the products, though it has been ascertained that a great many

people within the blind communities have insufficient knowledge of the accessible

facilities that could be at their disposal. Thus awareness raising is another main

objective of the project.

ADLAB partners include universities in five European countries (Artesis Hogeschool

Antwerpen in Belgium, the University of Trieste in Italy, Uniwersytet im. Adama

Mickiewicza in Poland, Instituto Politecnico de Leiria in Portugal and the Universitat

Autònoma de Barcelona in Spain), and industry partners and service providers in

three (Vlaamse Radio en Televisie (VRT) in Belgium, Bayerischer Rundfunk (BR) in

Germany and Senza Barriere ONLUS in Italy). This set-up is already an example of

hybridity primed for fruitful collaboration and, as one of the aims of the project is to

extend cooperation between academia and the world of work in all European

countries, the consortium can provide an initial model on how to create the

mechanisms by which best practices can be shared and acted upon. The partners

have also been chosen on the basis of a diversification principle: the language

permutations involved are Catalan, Dutch, English, French, German, Italian, Polish,

Portuguese and Spanish (to include both widely spoken and lesser-used languages

from the Romance, Germanic and Slavonic families), and all forms of audiovisual

translation are included (dubbing in Italy and Germany, monolingual subtitling in

Portugal, bilingual subtitling in Belgium, voice-over in Poland, bilingual dubbing in

Catalonia).

The project‟s objectives are pursued through a series of work packages which are

being implemented in a logical, gradual progression to allow for close monitoring and

assessment of performance. The first step has been a user needs analysis of the

current situation in Europe regarding the accessibility to audiovisual products on the

part of the blind and visually impaired population, in order to achieve a „photograph‟

of the situation of AD in Europe – particularly in the partner countries (Belgium, Italy,

Poland, Portugal, Spain and Germany). In the second stage all partners have carried

out extensive text analysis, and are drawing conclusions as to potential best

practices, leading to the preparation of material for extensive testing with the

assistance of blind and partially sighted audiences (and sighted subjects, where

appropriate or necessary, for purposes of comparison). The results of the tests will

enable partners to formulate standardised guidelines for audio describers, to be also

used, crucially, in defining reliable material for higher education courses.Audio Description: Lifelong Access for the Blind

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Table of Contents

1. PROJECT OBJECTIVES.................................................................................... 5

2. PROJECT APPROACH...................................................................................... 5

3. PROJECT OUTCOMES & RESULTS................................................................. 9

4. PARTNERSHIPS .............................................................................................. 11

5. PLANS FOR THE FUTURE.............................................................................. 13

6. CONTRIBUTION TO EU POLICIES ................................................................. 13

7. ADLAB IN ACTION........................................................................................... 15Audio

Description: Lifelong Access for the Blind

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1. Project Objectives

The ADLAB project starts from the premise that the situation regarding access to

audiovisual products on the part of the blind and visually impaired population in

Europe should be improved. It aims to address the needs of the blind and visually

impaired communities in Europe through the provision of much more quality audio

description over a wide range of uses. Apart from providing a special needs group

with recreational material (films, television programmes, etc.) the uses of audio

description in education are limitless, given that audiovisual material is now a

mainstay of education at all levels, as are hands-on practices such as museum visits

and live events, made accessible by AD.

Thus the main thrust of the ADLAB project is to develop best practices in the

teaching and training of audio describers at higher education level, including the

training of the teachers and trainers. Innovative teaching processes will be proposed

along with training programmes involving work placement in order to achieve a

substantial quality leap in the preparation of professional practitioners.

More specifically, ADLAB aims to (i) analyse current practices and national norms

and guidelines (where they exist) to have a clear photograph of the present situation

and gain a clear understanding of what is common to all and what is still required in

the provision of audio description; (ii) define a set of international standards and

reliable guidelines for the industry and for all users; (iii) provide the material for the

setting up of a Europe-wide network of audio description courses in higher education;

(iv) sensitise policy-makers to the importance of providing the blind community with

access to audiovisual products.

Crucially, the key target groups (the blind and visually impaired communities) have

been involved across the board, not only through the membership of industrial

partners and service providers, but also through awareness-raising initiatives such as

the event organized by partner „Senza Barriere‟ to inaugurate the audio described TV

channel ValsuganaTV, the press conferences arranged by VRT member, Erik de

Snerck, to mark the advent of audio description on Belgian TV, and the AD Day

initiative organized by Trieste members Chris Taylor and Elisa Perego. The director

of the Italian partner institution „Senza Barriere‟, Eraldo Busarello, is blind and

therefore and essential contributor to all project phases, from needs analysis to the

testing phases and exploitation. The German television company BR systematically

involves blind and visually impaired people in the AD process, in writing, in editing

and in studio work, while the VRT provides audio described material for Belgian TV

and is very involved in research in this area.

As regards the end-products of the project, the most important are the production of

quality audio descriptions and the creation of standard guidelines for their creation.

Course curricula for use in universities and other institutions of higher education are

another feature required for the education and training of professionals in the field,

especially where translation is involved. Similarly the learning of the technical skills

involved and how to work with audiovisual production protocols is crucial. This will

continue to be handled by the industry providers themselves, though collaboration

with the academic world is what the ADLAB team wish to encourage. Audio Description: Lifelong Access for the Blind

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2. Project Approach

The ADLAB approach policy is to work progressively from taking a „snapshot’ of the

current situation regarding the numbers of blind and visually impaired people in

Europe, particularly in the countries represented in the project, and thus the level of

demand and need for audio description services, to proposing solutions to close the

gaps existing in many places as regards access to audiovisual products on the part

of the blind community. An assessment of the needs of the target group of end-users

(focused on the partners‟ Member states) was therefore the first step, and a report is

available at . This exercise

generated a quite exceptional degree of interaction between enterprise and

education, because the international external experts involved in the external

evaluation of the report (Peter Olaf Looms, Alex Varley, Jan-Louis Kruger) not only

provided extremely valuable criticism and feedback, but also triggered a very lively

debate among all project participants.

The needs assessment has been followed by work on audiovisual text (principally

film) and analyses aimed at identifying what constitutes successful scripting of audio

description, specifically by identifying the most difficult problems describers face, first

in English and with reference to Tarantino‟s film „Inglorious Basterds‟, and

subsequently moving to the question of how to deal with foreign language texts. The

issue regarding the utility or otherwise of translating audio description texts requires

serious consideration and analysis, and this will be pursued also in terms of

integrating the service of audiosubtitling.

The next stage will involve testing the results of the text analysis phase to ascertain

whether the resulting descriptions do indeed represent an improvement on the rather

ad-hoc offer that exists at the moment and meet the approval of the end-users. Initial

testing will be carried out at university level to make sure the parameters are clearly

defined for everyone, and then the real testing phase can begin involving the blind

and visually impaired community but also sighted viewers for comparison purposes,

and service providers themselves. The tests will involve the use of questionnaires,

interviews, focus groups and comparative studies, and will provide an important step

in the attempt to formulate standardised guidelines for all audiodescribers.

The creation of the guidelines forms the final phase in the approach. This

development goes hand in hand with the formulation of curricula for higher education

courses, which will be designed to embrace both the theoretical aspects of AD (e.g.,

those emanating from the text analysis and translation phase) and the practical skills

required (to be found, in the first instance, in reputable, well thought out guidelines).

The results of all phases will be disseminated to interested stakeholders in the

academic world and in the world of work. Meetings between partners will be held on

a regular basis at the end of each phase, supplemented by local initiatives designed

always to attract attention to the work being carried out. The whole approach is

mapped out in a series of work packages dealing with the individual stages,

masterminded by different partners, and by work packages focussed on the

dissemination and exploitation of results.

To monitor and evaluate project performance, ADLAB has devised a quality

assurance plan, specifically for the project. This is based on five parameters: risk Audio Description: Lifelong Access for the Blind

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management, internal control, external control, best practices and quantitative

indicators. Concrete examples are the systematic, collaborative drafting of meetings‟

agendas and minutes with the integration of visual elements, the organisation of

distance “review” meetings every month, and the early definition of a response to the

EACEA evaluators‟ recommendations. Communication activities have been divided

between internal and external activities, on the basis of a clear plan. An ADLAB

virtual working environment is currently in place, as an integrated communication

platform for all project activities through the project website

(). Crucially, the website has been developed according to

the principles of cognitive ergonomics, in order to provide usability and accessibility

also for the blind people and the visually impaired community.

Importantly. the partners have been working on the basis of a formal, project-specific

partnership agreement (consortium agreement), approved by all partners‟ legal

representatives in the early stages of the project. The agreement allows partners to

work in a clear collaborative framework, without having to agree and define each time

the provisions regulating the individual project activities. The agreement features

terminological aspects, the project scope and general provisions, the role of the

steering group, meetings and voting, deliverables, IPRs and legal provisions among

others.

Dissemination activities have been planned and implemented both at project and

partner level, and recorded with a system that allows individual actions to be

extracted by heading (type of output, mode, target group…). ADLAB has further

engaged in sensitising stakeholders (and policy-makers in particular) to the

importance of providing the blind community with access to audiovisual products: a

series of local events have taken place in the partners countries and beyond. Firstly

all partners have made contact with national and local blind associations, not only to

sensitise the end-user organisations to audio description and to the work of ADLAB,

but also to ask for useful information as to their membership and activities and to any

lobbying initiatives they have undertaken. Other initiatives followed. Chris Taylor

(Trieste) gave a talk on ADLAB at the University of Calabria in October 2012 devoted

to European Union projects, an excellent occasion for the exchanging of information

with other project leaders. In the competition held to vote the best project, ADLAB

won first prize (see video link ). He also presented

ADLAB as keynote speaker at the prestigious ARSAD conference in March 2013 in

Barcelona for which ADLAB was a partner, and which served as a very useful

outreach conference for the project. At the previously mentioned event to inaugurate

ValsuganaTV, organized by Eraldo Busarello (Senza Barriere), Chris Taylor (Trieste)

presented ADLAB to the assembled group of politicians, journalists and media

figures. The Polish partner Iwona Mazur (Uniwersytet im. Adama Mickiewicza)

participated in a meeting to raise awareness with the Polish Blind Association in

November 2011 and identified the AD organisations to contact in order to promote

audio description. Partner Bernd Benecke (BR), a very active professional audio

describer, has organized a series of workshops on audio description, all related to

ADLAB, all of which inevitably attract attention to the provision of AD in Germany.

Pilar Orero (Barcelona) set up the resource centre for

ADLAB, while user associations and government departments related to AD in Spain

were contacted individually.

As regards reaching beyond Europe, Chris Taylor (Trieste) presented ADLAB in

Santa Fe, Argentina in October 2011 and in Zagreb in May 2012. These countries Audio Description: Lifelong Access for the Blind

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have practically no audio description and were keen to correspond. Pilar Orero

(Barcelona) and Aline Remael (Artesis) have been instrumental in promoting ADLAB

at ITU and ISO conferences in Toronto, Tokyo and Geneva. April 19th 2013 was

reserved for the „AD Day‟ initiative organized by the Trieste team. Local stakeholders

were invited (RAI Television, Blind Associations, media figures) and guest speakers

include Vera Arma from the AD producers „Culturabile‟, Carla Lugli voice talent for

RAI television, Vincenzo Zoccano („vicepresidente della Consulta Regionale delle

Associazioni dei Disabili del Friuli Venezia Giulia‟ )

and the audio description provider „Senza Barriere‟. Chris Taylor and Carla Lugli

were interviewed on local television station Telequattro on the importance of AD at

both local and national level.Audio Description: Lifelong Access for the Blind

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3. Project Outcomes & Results

The first phase of the project has produced a User Needs Assessment (report

available at ), focussed on

the partners‟ countries (Belgium, Germany, Italy, Poland, Portugal, Spain), as well as

a Report on Text Analysis and Development and a Future Schedule (see Work

Package 2 reports on adlabproject.eu. This has resulted in a much improved

state-of-the-art relating to media accessibility on the part of the blind and visually

impaired population. Starting from the original „snapshot‟ of the state-of-the-art (2011)

in the project description, the User Needs Assessment illustrates ways for a more

widespread and better distribution of AD products, with an education and training

background provided by the fruitful collaboration between academia and service

providers.

The subsequent Text Analysis and Development and the Future Schedule,

currently under evaluation, will lead to the second part of the project (testing and

guidelines development). The exploitation phase will take place in the last six months

of the project, when the results of the project can made available to organizations

and stakeholders all over the continent, starting from those with whom the partners

regularly cooperate (such as the Zon/Lusomundo DVD producers in Portugal,

national television in Spain and Catalonia, the Audio Description Foundation in

Poland, and the Dutch AD provider Soundfocus), and then reaching out to those

areas where the partners have links and contacts through regular meetings on the

audiovisual research circuit.

In this sense, ADLAB is acting as an awareness-raising vehicle amongst the blind

communities, particularly those citizens as yet unaware of the availability of audio

described products. Service providers such as the ADLAB partner „Senza Barriere‟ in

Italy will disseminate results, publicize their service and keep a database of users.

National institutes and associations for the blind (for example, the Unione Ciechi in

Italy, O.N.C.E. in Spain, VeBeS and SBPV vzw - Het Slechtzienden en

blindenplatform Vlaanderen in Belgium, BBSB- Bayerischer Blinden- und

Sehbehindertenbund in Germany, PZN Polski Związek Niewidomych in Poland and

ACAPO in Portugal) have been contacted and encouraged to collaborate to the

advantage of their members. Much ground has already been covered in this respect

(in Italy experiments have been carried out with the Rittmeyer Institute in Trieste and

the Blind Persons‟ Union in Pordenone; the „Consulta Regionale‟ for the disabled in

Friuli Venezia-Giulia has given ADLAB its patronage, etc.). It is also intended to

exploit this kind of collaboration to lobby government legislators and those decisionmakers in industry not yet sensitised to the benefits of AD. These include distributors

such as Telenet, Belgacom TV, TV Vlaanderen, Norkring, Mobistar TV, and decision

makers Tom Sierens of the media department, Philippe Courard (Secretary of state

for people with a handicap) and lobby groups such as Grip in Flanders; ADLAB

partner Josélia Neves from Portugal holds regular meetings with the „Grupo de

Reflexāo para a Acessibilidade aos Media (where legislators, stakeholders and

specialists have a say) and is a consultant for the ERC – Entidade Reguladora para

a Cumunicaçāo in Portugal; Anna Matamala and Pilar Orero (Barcelona) work on

the ITU standardization group and on the standardisation body AENOR in Spain; and

in Italy the AD Day initiative is being supported by the regional office for the disabled Audio Description: Lifelong Access for the Blind

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and by the Officer for the Disabled of the provincial government who has also asked

the Trieste team to take part in the Day of the Disabled conference. All this activity is

designed to persuade such legislators and stakeholders to promote the expansion of

the practice over all media. The television companies who are partners in the project

(BR, VRT) and those already attuned to AD (e.g. TVC, the Catalan national television

service, the BBC, DR the Danish television service), will give further emphasis to the

fact that they can offer ever more programming with audio description, and this

practice will be encouraged across Europe. The following chart, derived from ADLAB

research, shows roughly the situation in a number of European countries today.

Country AD on TV

since... Public TV broadcasters Commercial TV

broadcasters

Minutes of AD on

TV

BE

(Flemish

Region)

2012 VRT - 780 mins/year

DE 1993

BR, Arte, NDR, WDR,

MDR, ZDF, 3Sat, HR,

RBB, SWR

-

93,600 - 140,400

mins/year

IT 1997 RAI 1,2,3 - 218,400 mins/year

PL 2011 TVP TVN 15,000 mins/year

PT RTP - 3120 mins/year

ES 1995

RTVE, Televisión

Pública Andalucía, TP

de Catalunya

Disney

Channel Antena 3

Televisión

UK BBC BSkyB, Channel 4, ITV +/- 100 hrs/month

It seems certain that these figures are destined to increase, if not dramatically, in the

next few years. ADLAB partner Bernd Benecke (BR) predicts major changes in

Germany. Either through government legislation or voluntary initiative, for example

on the part of some private companies such as BSkyB, the targets set by decree or

by wishful thinking are slowly being met. Chris Taylor (Trieste) met with RAI

Television operatives at a seminar in Forlì in 2012 who showed interest in the ADLAB

project and website, and gave assurances that, despite the bleak financial outlook,

progress would be made.

By way of further example, VRT initiated audio description in Belgium during the first

phase of the project. As mentioned above, BR continue to expand their television

coverage in Bavaria and beyond. ADLAB has brought together BR and VRT and

discussions have begun on the possibility of international collaboration where

languages are common to more than one country. Senza Barriere has increased its

catalogue of described films to more than 500. A recent PhD thesis at UAB (Caceres,

2013) on audio description reports that AD in Spain, in spite of a lack of penalties for

those not respecting government directives, is on the increase.Audio Description: Lifelong Access for the Blind

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4. Partnerships

The ADLAB partners come from both university and industry sectors. The HEI

partners (University of Trieste, Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, Instituto

Politécnico de Leiria, Artesis University College, Uniwersytet im. Adama Mickiewicza)

have worked in the audiovisual field for many years in collaboration, and all have

more recently turned to the question of accessibility. The ADLAB project represented

the ideal opportunity to continue working together on the subject of access to

audiovisual products for the visually impaired. The members are constant

contributors to national and international conferences, workshops and seminars on

audiovisual topics and their joint bibliography is both lengthy and authoritative. They

have all introduced audio description into their teaching modules, whether in

undergraduate or postgraduate study programmes, also bringing a number of Ph.D

students into the field (see adlabproject.eu for a complete list of courses and

theses produced on AD in the project lifetime). Most of the HEI partners also have

practical experience of audio description (Pilar Orero in Barcelona with local Catalan

TV, Aline Remael in Antwerp with Flemish TV, Josélia Neves in Leiria with

Portuguese TV).

Among the non-university partners, the German television company Bayerischer

Rundfunk (BR) ( and to br.de/hoerfilme for AD in

particular) has in Bernd Benecke one of the foremost professional describers in

Europe. BR also involves blind and visually impaired people in the AD process, while

VRT (the Flemish television station provides AD material for

Belgian TV and is involved in research. In Italy, the partner „Senza Barriere‟

(), a non-profit making organisation providing

professional audiodescription products for the Italian blind community. The director is

Eraldo Busarello, who is blind, and therefore an essential element in the make-up of

the consortium. „Senza Barriere‟ has produced a first set of guidelines for Italian

describers which is being constantly perfected. As mentioned before, the partners

have also been chosen on the basis of a diversification principle. ADLAB includes a

wide range of language permutations (Catalan, Dutch, English, French, German,

Italian, Polish, Portuguese and Spanish), and all forms of audiovisual translation

(dubbing in Italy and Germany, monolingual subtitling in Portugal, bilingual subtitling

in Belgium, voice-over in Poland, bilingual dubbing in Catalonia).

By drawing on a highly diversified combination of expertise, both within and beyond

the consortium, ADLAB is providing an example of real cooperation between

academia and enterprise.

Certainly the increasing interest in audiovisual products produced in the countries of

Europe (and particularly English-language products in translation) is encouraging in

terms of inter-European contact. Suffice it to think of all the different language

versions that can be found on DVDs in the form of dubbing, subtitling and captioning

for the deaf and hard of hearing. Audio description has only just entered this polyglot

world, and not at all in some countries, but the dynamic that has created the current

range of multilingual products will embrace AD precisely through projects like

ADLAB. The aim is for more and more DVDs to contain AD and in as many

combinations as the other audiovisual systems. From the post-production point of Audio Description: Lifelong Access for the Blind

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view, it would make sense to add AD to the existing package of services, and

commercial suppliers will be contacted and encouraged to so do.

Similarly a main project objective is for AD on television to become less sporadic

and cinema provision to increase. As there is currently great disparity among the

countries of Europe in terms of AD acceptance and provision, this gap needs to be

bridged and requires the kind of close European cooperation that ADLAB proposes.

The partners involved cover nine languages and every kind of interlingual translation

mode. The industry and service provider partners are tuned to the need for access at

international level and are keen to promote standardized audiodescription for the

benefit of all. The inter-European composition of the consortium provides the

necessary synergy to pursue the above-mentioned goals.

The first subjects to benefit from the outcomes of the ADLAB project are the endusers of audio description, that is the blind and visually impaired communities across

Europe. The provision and promotion of best practices in AD, based on the results of

the analysis, testing and guideline production phases of ADLAB, together with the

raising of awareness of the existence of audio description, particularly as regards the

describing of television products, will benefit a potential audience of millions. In terms

of the development of new opportunities for the teaching of audio description

strategies and techniques, there will be benefits for those students who complete

courses and are able to find work in an area which is expected to expand. AD on

television is expanding, albeit slowly, in line with government directives and voluntary

decisions on the part, particularly, of private broadcasters. Within the media industry,

as indicated above, the development of DVDs with „packages‟ of extra material

(trailers, standard subtitles in various languages, intralingual subtitles for the deaf

and hard of hearing, multiple dubbing tracks, information on the films, etc.) means

that the cost of providing audio description can be borne within the package and not

represent the obstacle that has dissuaded many producers in the past. Audio Description: Lifelong Access for the Blind

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5. Plans for the Future

During the second phase of the project, in which experimentation will be carried out,

guidelines perfected and curricula developed, the members will continue to promote

the project ethos and reach out to the HEI sector and service providers across

Europe. Curriculum development in the field, within the wider area of audiovisual

studies, will be an ongoing concern. Representatives of service providers and policymaking bodies will continue to be contacted and sensitised and some will be invited

to attend local events and the final conference. The aim is for Europe-wide

communication to be established so that everyone works in the same direction

pursuing the same objectives. More reports will be published explaining in detail all

the phases of the project and the results attained at each stage. The research results

must also be communicated to political operators: several partners are already

involved with their respective governments as consultants or experts, and more

contacts of this sort will be actively sought. While not directly connected at

government level, the Polish partners explain that „already during the project duration

AMU participants plan to present papers at academic conferences and publish

articles featuring the findings of the project.‟ They will also use project results in

teaching AD, as well as make them available to AD stakeholders in Poland.

The standardised guidelines will be published separately and disseminated as

widely as possible to HEI and industry providers in Europe. They will be presented on

the websites of the partner universities and other HEIs interested in audio visual

studies will be encouraged to do likewise. In Flanders, for example, the Dutch version

of the guidelines would be offered to both public and commercial television channels

(Telenet, Belgacom TV, TV Vlaanderen, Norkring, Mobistar TV) and they could even

be expanded to television channels in the Netherlands. The guidelines and manual

would also be integrated into the masters course in Media Accessibility. Bayerischer

Rundfunk will use the German version for the next revision of the German guidelines

and integrate them in their regular training seminars. Senza Barriere intend to

produce a new version of their Italian guidelines based on the ADLAB document and

to improve their test for prospective describers by integrating ideas emanating from

the project. As the guidelines are promoted across the European stage, Pilar Orero

(Barcelona) and Aline Remael‟s (Artesis Hogeschool Antwerpen) connections will

provide complementary information when drawing world-wide guidelines in ISO and

ITU.

In the meantime more effort will be directed to identifying where the current

stakeholders are located and where information is lacking for all the potential endusers. Thus, throughout this mapping exercise, the findings of the project will be

brought to the attention of as many stakeholders in the audio description business as

possible, particularly those organizations that provide a service and are anxious to

improve their product, and those universities that wish to incorporate AD into their

audiovisual courses or set up specific AD training.

At the end of the project, follow-up seminars will be encouraged throughout the

European HEI network on an at least twice-yearly basis. The project website will be

kept up to date after the project ends. Access will be made available to the project

database that will contain data pertaining to all stages of the project. It will be opened Audio Description: Lifelong Access for the Blind

517992-LLP-1-2011-1-IT-ERASMUS-ECUE 14 / 20

to all stakeholders, who will be included in an extensive mailing list, and

encouraged to contribute with suggestions, comments and additional data.

An important result of the project that will benefit the final end-users, the blind and

visually impaired themselves, is the greater visibility audio description will have.

ADLAB will contribute to awareness-raising amongst the blind communities,

particularly those citizens as yet unaware of the availability of audio described

products. The advisory board on audiodescription, to be established as the project

reaches its end, will firstly consist of those members of the ADLAB project itself who

have already expressed an interest and who have been active in the promotion of

audio description for a number of years now. Their numbers will be augmented by

invitations to prominent members of the profession such as those already involved

with ADLAB as external assessors.Audio Description: Lifelong Access for the Blind

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6. Contribution to EU policies

The results of the initial survey, carried out as a user needs assessment confirmed

first of all how great was the potential demand for audio description in Europe. The

figures relating to the size of the blind and visually impaired population was roughly

similar in all the countries investigated and proved to be a highly significant number:

for example 350,000 blind people and 1.5 million visually impaired in Italy. France

numbers 77,000 bind people and 1.2 million partially sighted, Belgium 13,200 and

220,000 respectively, Germany 150,000 and 1.2 million. These figures indicate that

the blind and partially sighted community all over Europe is not an insignificant

minority, and is indeed growing, and that providing audiovisual access to these

persons would bring benefits to a sizeable part of the population.

Work on this issue clearly requires a European perspective, given the different

languages, cultures and traditions involved and the varying levels of provision to be

found in different European realities. Indeed it is ONLY through cooperation at

European level that this issue can be addressed, as sporadic work on a national,

regional or local basis, which has generally been the case until now, has inevitably

led to imbalances and even incomprehension among the many nations of the E.U.

The project will contribute to preventing the development of isolated and incompatible

practices before they are fully established. By providing an important E.U. financed

platform for promoting audio description, ADLAB is attempting to attract the attention

of national operatives towards the rational objective of having a standardized set of

rules. Already the ITU and ISO have taken notice and ADLAB members have

presented the project all over Europe and beyond (see dissemination table). Three

members of the ADLAB consortium (Pilar Orero, Aline Remael, Josélia Neves) are

consulted as experts in their respective government bodies as regards audio

description and thus have influence in decision making. Both BR and VRT, who

control audio description on television in Bavaria and Flanders are members of

ADLAB. Senza Barriere, which provides guidelines for Italian audio description, is

also following the ADLAB agenda.

Against this background, ADLAB‟s scope and activities are fully in line with the

Europe 2020 strategy, in particular with the two flagship initiatives “Innovation

Union” and “An agenda for new skills and new jobs”. The former aims to promote

excellence in education and skills development and to strengthen links between

education, business, research and innovation, while the latter promotes better

anticipation of future skills needs, and better matching between skills and labour

market needs. Within this policy framework, ADLAB strives to go beyond “cosmetic”

dialogue and promote real synergies between academia, industrial partners and

service providers: as mentioned before, this is seen as the only way to give a

significant contribution to both curriculum development and professional practice in

the AD sector. ADLAB is also expected to inform collateral initiatives under the latest

Lifelong Learning Programme‟s priorities, especially the “Knowledge Alliances”

intended to strengthen and develop Europe‟s innovation potential via the provision of

comprehensive sets of joint activities (including the design and delivery of new

multidisciplinary curricula and innovative courses).Audio Description: Lifelong Access for the Blind

517992-LLP-1-2011-1-IT-ERASMUS-ECUE 16 / 20

7. ADLAB in ACTIONAudio Description: Lifelong Access for the Blind

517992-LLP-1-2011-1-IT-ERASMUS-ECUE 17 / 20Audio Description: Lifelong Access for the Blind

517992-LLP-1-2011-1-IT-ERASMUS-ECUE 18 / 20Audio Description: Lifelong Access for the Blind

517992-LLP-1-2011-1-IT-ERASMUS-ECUE 19 / 20Audio Description: Lifelong Access for the Blind

517992-LLP-1-2011-1-IT-ERASMUS-ECUE 20 / 20

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