Blind and Visually Impaired Community
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Movies, a question. (self.Blind)
submitted 7y ago by MusicalBaboon
Hey. So, spare a lot of back story, I'm trying to organise a movie night for a student group for people with all disabilities. We cover everything from minor mental health problems to cerebral palsy and some of the other rather major problems.
We tried last year, and realised that to be fully accessible, we'd need to offer audio descriptions, which meant getting a cinema instead of a spare room and projector, which isn't exactly great for the budget.
To the question - would something like a film musical have sufficient audio to be able to follow without traditional AD? Would you feel you were not being properly accommodated if a "fully accessible" movie night did not offer AD?
Thanks
We tried last year, and realised that to be fully accessible, we'd need to offer audio descriptions, which meant getting a cinema instead of a spare room and projector, which isn't exactly great for the budget.
To the question - would something like a film musical have sufficient audio to be able to follow without traditional AD? Would you feel you were not being properly accommodated if a "fully accessible" movie night did not offer AD?
Thanks
aam22 1 points
Netflix has some options with audio description. I know that Daredevil, even though it's a series, it definitely has the audio description.
fastfinge 1 points
Well, it depends on the movie. Musicals can actually be the worst without audio description, because so much of the character interaction is through dance and physical movement, and the dialogue is forced to be a song, meaning it can't always address what the characters are doing at the moment. Older black and white movies tend to be some of the easiest to follow; they were filmed to be watched on a small, black and white screen, and the script-writers were often the same people writing audio only scripts for old time radio dramas. Also, there was no CGI or other advanced effects, so a lot more of the plot had to be presented through dialogue.
To be blunt though, I probably wouldn't go to a public movie event that didn't offer audio description. Even when I watch movies with friends, if I know what we're planning on watching in advance, I'll listen to the movie first by myself so I can either hear the audio description or read the screenplay. That way, I can follow what's going on, and they don't have to have the description track turned on, or pause and describe things to me. But that only works well when I'm enjoying movies or TV shows with friends. I often find myself enjoying my friends reacting to the movie, because I already know exactly what's going to happen, more than I enjoy my second listen to the film. In a public venue where I don't know anyone, and everyone's being totally silent anyway because it's a public viewing, I wouldn't get to have that experience. And the same movie twice in a row just doesn't appeal to me at all.
If you're focusing on accessibility though, I would encourage you to just leave the audio description on for everyone. You already have to leave the captions on the screen for the deaf people, so I don't see why playing the audio description to everyone is any worse. Also, it raises awareness that audio described movies are a thing. It drives me crazy that a lot of these types of events are perfectly OK with turning captions on, and displaying subtitles on the screen to everyone, but refuse to turn on audio descriptions. If you're not turning on captions, don't turn on audio description. If you're turning on captions, audio description needs to be on, to. But if you have neither audio descriptions nor captions, you're not accessible to blind or deaf people, meaning you might as well call it a movie night for the physically disabled.
To be blunt though, I probably wouldn't go to a public movie event that didn't offer audio description. Even when I watch movies with friends, if I know what we're planning on watching in advance, I'll listen to the movie first by myself so I can either hear the audio description or read the screenplay. That way, I can follow what's going on, and they don't have to have the description track turned on, or pause and describe things to me. But that only works well when I'm enjoying movies or TV shows with friends. I often find myself enjoying my friends reacting to the movie, because I already know exactly what's going to happen, more than I enjoy my second listen to the film. In a public venue where I don't know anyone, and everyone's being totally silent anyway because it's a public viewing, I wouldn't get to have that experience. And the same movie twice in a row just doesn't appeal to me at all.
If you're focusing on accessibility though, I would encourage you to just leave the audio description on for everyone. You already have to leave the captions on the screen for the deaf people, so I don't see why playing the audio description to everyone is any worse. Also, it raises awareness that audio described movies are a thing. It drives me crazy that a lot of these types of events are perfectly OK with turning captions on, and displaying subtitles on the screen to everyone, but refuse to turn on audio descriptions. If you're not turning on captions, don't turn on audio description. If you're turning on captions, audio description needs to be on, to. But if you have neither audio descriptions nor captions, you're not accessible to blind or deaf people, meaning you might as well call it a movie night for the physically disabled.
romanj35 1 points
Well, to tell you the truth, alot of blueray movies come with audio description. I'd imagine that an internet search could probably find you a website that has a list of movies that do have the a.d. feature in it. I'd also imagine that finding a blueray player would be easier.
MusicalBaboon [OP] 1 points
Is it possible to play the tracks simultaneously? That is, have any vision impaired peoples using a headphone or something, and loud speakers on the normal audio track?
I had considered it, most disney stuff comes with descriptions, just couldn't get past that logistical problem.
I had considered it, most disney stuff comes with descriptions, just couldn't get past that logistical problem.
geoffisblind 1 points
I don't know how viable this option would be, but if you could have it playing on two separate DVD player systems, one without description, and one with and then just have those who need descriptive audio listen with wireless headphones connected to the player with the audio. I don't know what that would do for your budget though, or how logistically possible it is.
impablomations 1 points
You wouldn't be able to separate out the audio tracks, but, you could do something similar.
Have a volunteer watching the movie do their own audio description as it is playing, which could then be fed to headphones. Could be an interesting activity for any students in a theatre/drama program.
Obviously they'd need to sit at the back, and talk quietly into the microphone so as not to disturb anyone else. It might be a workable compromise though. If your school/college has a music production dept. they might be able to help you out with equipment. It might be an interesting little project for them to get involved in that could tie into their studies.
Recording studios will quite often have a dedicated headphone amp with multiple outputs, if you can get your hands on a few cordless headphones it would work quite well.
If you use a small mixer, you could mix the movie & AD audio together.
I used to be a musician with a lot of studio experience before I lost most of my sight (I still have my home studio), this is how I would do it....
https://i.imgur.com/cyJBfJM.jpg
If you can't get cordless headphones then trailing cables might become a trip hazard, so I would suggest the visually impaired moviegoers sit together nearest the mixer and you give them the headphones after they are seated, and take back the headphones before they leave the seat.
I hope you can pull this off as it does sound like a great idea.
Have a volunteer watching the movie do their own audio description as it is playing, which could then be fed to headphones. Could be an interesting activity for any students in a theatre/drama program.
Obviously they'd need to sit at the back, and talk quietly into the microphone so as not to disturb anyone else. It might be a workable compromise though. If your school/college has a music production dept. they might be able to help you out with equipment. It might be an interesting little project for them to get involved in that could tie into their studies.
Recording studios will quite often have a dedicated headphone amp with multiple outputs, if you can get your hands on a few cordless headphones it would work quite well.
If you use a small mixer, you could mix the movie & AD audio together.
I used to be a musician with a lot of studio experience before I lost most of my sight (I still have my home studio), this is how I would do it....
https://i.imgur.com/cyJBfJM.jpg
If you can't get cordless headphones then trailing cables might become a trip hazard, so I would suggest the visually impaired moviegoers sit together nearest the mixer and you give them the headphones after they are seated, and take back the headphones before they leave the seat.
I hope you can pull this off as it does sound like a great idea.
geoffisblind 1 points
I actually went to a theater production with someone doing this, it was definitely different from traditional descriptive audio but I really enjoyed it.
fastfinge 1 points
No, it isn't. The AD would need to be on for everyone.
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