Abstract
Over the past few years, we have been observing an exponential growth in audio description (AD). This has resulted in a growing need for trained AD professionals and, consequently, for AD training. While the ADLAB PRO project helped define the professional profile of the audio describer and produced a range of training materials, there is still considerable room for other AD training approaches to be shared with a view to inspiring AD trainers when creating their courses. Thus, this practice report presents selected exercises that I have been developing since 2009, when I first started teaching AD both at university and outside academia (e.g., during dedicated courses for broadcasters, NGOs and cultural institutions), presenting their learning outcomes and framing them within the ADLAB PRO framework of competencies for professional audio describers. All the activities offered in this article are based on my professional experience as an academic teacher and researcher and also as a professional describer and accessibility manager who overlsees the entire AD production process: from negotiating with clients through production (scripting, proofs, recording, quality control) to product delivery and on-site assistance.
Highlights
In recent years we have been observing an exponential growth in audio description (AD), both in research and, perhaps even more importantly, in practice
Some information is provided by organizations that offer professional training (e.g., Access2Arts, n.d.; Audio Description Association, n.d.)
This will change as ADLAB PRO6 – the first large-scale project that aimed at defining the professional profile of an audio describer and at designing dedicated training materials – was in place between 2016 and 2019
Summary
In recent years we have been observing an exponential growth in audio description (AD), both in research and, perhaps even more importantly, in practice. It should be noted that none of the attempts mentioned above are supported by research evidence nor do they constitute a comprehensive framework comparable to models such as, for example, the European Master’s in Translation (European Commission, 2017) or PACTE (Hurtado Albir, 2017), known in Translation Studies This will change as ADLAB PRO6 – the first large-scale project that aimed at defining the professional profile of an audio describer and at designing dedicated training materials – was in place between 2016 and 2019. Teaching materials are another burning issue in AD training. All of them focus mainly on teaching AD scripting and are organized in the following modules, which are sub-sections of this article: First steps in AD scripting (3.1), AD translation (3.2), Learning and questioning the guidelines (3.3), From rules to strategies (3.4) and Collaborative AD scripting (3.4)
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