Friday, I had the pleasure of experiencing “The Incredibles” at the Alamo Drafthouse in Austin. In addition to a theatre full of accessibility compadres, free food and drinks (thanks Knowbility & IBM), we were given the opportunity to experience the movie fully captioned and with live audio descriptions. I think it is so cool that Austin has theatres that provide this service.
So, glass of wine in one hand, artichoke pizza in the other and a small wireless over-the-ear headphone, I sat back, closed my eyes and listened to the movie. The professional audio describer was located near the front of the theatre. She had a microphone that was tuned to the same frequency as my headphone. She had seen the movie once and had determined what important visuals needed to be described for a full experience. Audio describers are trained to objectively describe critical visual information without opinion or bias.
I’ll admit I didn’t keep my eyes closed for too long. But it was fascinating just listening to the movie. My imagination was drawing the pictures, just like when I’m reading a good book. When I opened my eyes and had even more input, I played the “art of alt” game with myself. How would I have described the visual information on the screen? It was like a giant alt text quiz on speed. I’m awed by the brain power of people who can do live audio description and live captioning. I secretly think these people received extra helpings of brain cells when they were created!
As a web developer who revels in rich media, I’m often faced with the daunting task of finding resources to transcribe a video. Now, as I provide the transcripts for rich media, I’ll always remember that transcribing the spoken words is not enough. To truly provide access to the content of the rich media, I need to describe the important visuals as well. So, as I head back to Alamo Drafthouse this weekend for Star Wars: Revenge of the Sith, I’ll be ever so grateful for my vision and occasionally I might close me eyes just to listen.
Want to learn more about audio descriptions? I suggest starting with Audio Description International. Looking for theatres in your area that provide this service…they are often marked with an OC (open caption) or AD (audio description) symbol.
Wow, live audio description sounds like a pretty incredible skill to have. Still, I would not have been able to keep my eyes closed with The Incredibles on the screen.
Incidentally, the Alamo Drafthouse is one of my favorite places on the planet.