The Audiodescription of Scientific - 2014

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The Audio Description of ScientificMultimediaLidia Cmaraa & Eva Espasaba TED.com, Ideas Worth Spreadingb University of Vic, SpainPublished online: 21 Feb 2014.

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ISSN 1355-6509 St Jerome Publishing Manchester

The Translator. Volume 17, Number 2 (2011), 415-37 ISBN 978-1-905763-27-6

The Audio Description of Scientific Multimedia

LIDIA CMARA TED.com, Ideas Worth Spreading

EVA ESPASAUniversity of Vic, Spain

Abstract. Multimedia documents are increasingly used to dis-seminate specialized scientific knowledge. They are addressed to, and accessed by, different audiences: experts, students (with differing degrees of specialization) and general audiences. This range of audiences and products can help to bridge the gap between scientific communities and the rest of the population. Multimedia documents convey verbal and non-verbal information through visual and acoustic channels. The multiplicity of codes and channels both helps the acquisition of knowledge and allows for the inclusion of different types of accessibility resources, such as audio description for the visually impaired (AD). This article focuses on audio descrip-tion of dynamic images in non-fiction scientific genres, including documentaries and multimedia presentations. It discusses current research on images, scientific translation and accessibility, analyzes existing audio-described documentaries, and proposes alternatives that can improve visual accessibility to multimedia scientific texts in different formats.

Keywords: Audio description, Multimedia, Scientific text, Non-fiction, Documentaries.

Audio description is an assistive service that allows the blind and visually im-paired to access images. It is part of a communication system known as Visual Assistive Discourse (Piety 2003) which uses language for special purposes. The

1 We wish to acknowledge the help of Anas Garca Balmaa, Head of the Culture and Sports Department, ONCE (Organizacin Nacional de Ciegos Espaoles; the Spanish National Organization for the Blind), Barcelona, who facilitated the researchers access to audio-described documentaries in Spanish.

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The Audio Description of Scientific Multimedia416

minimal units of such assistive discourse are called Audio Description units (ADUs); they consist of textual chains with linguistic information dependent on visual representation inserted in the message presented as pre-recorded auditory or textual information, and are read by a text-to-speech system. Audio description can be considered a very specific mode of constrained translation, as defined by Mayoral et al. (1998:357), where the target text is subordinate to other requirements, in this case the image. More specifically, it may be seen as a type of intersemiotic constrained translation, since the descriptions, when not accompanied by the document in which the images are included, do not make sense by themselves.

Documentaries and multimedia documents are increasingly used to dis-seminate specialized knowledge. They are addressed to, and accessed by, different audiences: experts, students and general audiences. Today, the multiplicity of multimedia resources created for such diverse audiences can help to bridge the gap between scientific communities and the rest of the population. However, while the use of multimedia enhances knowledge representation, knowledge acquisition and knowledge transfer, it is also true that it poses issues of accessibility, since users must possess the full range of sensory abilities in order to take full advantage of such resources. Modes of accessibility to multimedia products must therefore be carefully examined, the most common of these being subtitling for the deaf and hard of hearing (SDHH) and audio description (AD) for the blind and visually impaired, fields in which scholars of translation began to develop an interest at the turn of the century (Orero 2005, 2007).

This paper will focus on audio description for the blind and visually im-paired and will limit itself to non-fictional scientific material published in multimedia formats. The largely uncharted territory of dynamic images in non-fictional scientific documents (documentaries and multimedia presenta-tions) will be addressed from two perspectives: the examination of current research, guidelines and usages in AD in connection with documentaries, and the exploration of alternatives to current AD practices and techniques. We start by analyzing ADUs in documentaries, in order to ascertain to what extent current audio description practices are appropriate for non-fictional scientific material, before proposing alternatives to such practices by creating ADUs of specific application to scientific talks available on the web.

1. Images in scientific and technical translation and the issue of accessibility

Given that audio description was created as an aid for use in theatre and, later, in cinema, it is not surprising that it is associated with leisure activities in an established definition by the UKs Royal National Institute of Blind People (RNIB 2008; emphasis added):

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Lidia Cmara and Eva Espasa 417

Audio description is a vital service that can help people with sight problems to fully enjoy leisure activities. It is an additional narration that describes all significant visual information such as body language, facial expression, scenery, action, costumes anything that is important to conveying the plot of the story, event or image. Audio description is available on television, on video and DVD, at cinemas, museums and galleries, and theatres.

AD has been addressed in non-fiction documents only as an exceptional case. For example, the pioneering study by Schmeidler and Kirchner (2000), a research project which started in 1993 when AD was still in its infancy, evaluated the impact on visually impaired viewers of adding description to science documentaries. It concluded that AD enhanced viewers learning of the programmes science content, and made them more enjoyable and interest-ing. Other studies, including research by Maribel Tercedor and her colleagues (Tercedor and Abada 2005), focused on the importance of describing images in the translation of scientific and technical texts, and later on web accessi-bility and the need to provide precise textual descriptions for images in that environment (Tercedor et al. 2007, Tercedor and Jimnez 2008).

Providing e-accessibility of images is another important focus of study. In the context of academic courses on scientific and technical translation, Prieto et al. (2007) introduced activities geared towards making images accessible (for example, by providing descriptions of images, defining specialized terms for lay audiences, summarizing translations, providing multilingual multimedia glossaries extracted from audiovisual documents, and voicing over translations in html animations). These activities are considered very useful preparation for the drafting of AD scripts.

All of this research emphasizes the importance of images in scientific and technical texts as well as the impact of multimedia communication scenarios on professional translation and training (Tercedor et al. 2009:143):

Images are central to scientific and technical contexts at all levels of specialisation, conveying important information that complements or substitutes that contained in the text. There is a growing need to present information contained in images multimodally (i.e. using different channels of information: audio, animations, dynamic images, etc.), and such need comes from the multimedia communication scenarios in professional translation and translation training .... These profes-sional shifts may influence the way images are conveyed, described, and explained for online settings so as to give access to as wide an audience as possible. All the above may affect the way translators ap-proach the text in new professional environments.

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Given that dynamic images are so important in multimodal scientific and technical texts and their translations, they should be made accessible for all. This means that audio description, or setting ears in the eyes,2 should be an integral part of technical and scientific multimedia materials, in order to op-timize the acquisition of specialized knowledge.

2. Audiodescription:betweenguidelinesandactualpractice

Generally speaking, current guidelines on audio description, such as the ITC Guidance for Standards on Audio Description and the Spanish Standard UNE 153020, devote much more attention to fiction than to non-fiction films.

The British ITC guidelines make some explicit reference to documentaries. There is a specific section on nature documentaries, which are considered to be appropriate for audio description. Unlike current affairs documentaries which offer less scope for description because they tend to be wordy, nature documentaries are slower in pace and very visual, and are also popular pro-grammes, particularly with middle-aged and elderly audiences (ITC 2000:26). The ITC guidelines provide an indication of where to insert descriptions: where there are long pauses with only the natural sounds being heard. This follows the general rules of AD, in that descriptive units can only be inserted in the gaps where there is no verbal narration or dialogue in the original sound track. In practice, this technical restriction means that the basic criterion in AD is not only the relevance of the images which are being presented on screen but the possibility of inserting AD units; this has specific consequences for the representation of specialized knowledge.

The ITC Guidelines provide two further specific instructions: the recom-mendation to use specialist vocabulary with precision (ibid.:9) and the relative importance of providing details in the script (ibid.:22):

In a nature film, there may be wildlife in the distance, but if they are too far away to identify, there is little point in examining them through a telescope. If they were more than incidental to the sequence, they would have been filmed in close-up.

The Spanish Standard on audio description, UNE 153020,3 mentions that it

is generally applicable for documentaries (AENOR 2005:4), although, unlike the ITC guidelines, there are no specific sections for each programme type.

2 This is a variant on the phrase Eyes in your ears; ears in your eyes, the title of teach-ing materials used in a seminar on Subtitling for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing, conducted by Dr Joslia Neves at the international event Media for All: Quality made to Measure, Antwerp, 22-24 October 2009.3 A note on the use of Standard: The word norma of its original title is translated as guide-lines in the English abstract included in the text of UNE 153020. However, it is usually translated as standard, for example, in Utray, Pereira & Orero (2009).

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The most relevant recommendations which might apply to documentaries are summed up as follows (AENOR 2005:8):

1) Respect for information conveyed by images: there should be no cen-sorship, nor editing, of alleged excesses or gaps in source-material.

2) Use of concrete versus vague adjectives, and of specific terminology. 3) No description of what can be deduced. 4) No anticipation of events. 5) Avoiding the inclusion of personal points of view (on the part of the

describer).

Against the background of such guidelines, it is useful to examine ADUs in a number of actual documentaries in order to illustrate the potential benefits and limitations of current AD practices in scientific audiovisual documents.4 The first case study is of the first of a series of 28 documentaries audio de-scribed in Spanish for members of ONCE (Organizacin Nacional de Ciegos Espaoles; the Spanish National Organization for the Blind); the second is of a scientific talk.

2.1 Case study 1: The Rhythms of Life

The Rhythms of Life was the first documentary to be audio described in Spain. It is a nature documentary produced by the National Geographic Society Tel-evision in 1995, and distributed and audio described in Spain in 1997.5

The most salient feature of the Spanish AD is its total duration: 75 min-utes, fifteen minutes more than the original 60-minute film. This is due to an introduction added (while the image on screen is frozen) at the beginning of the documentary. The introduction provides a commentary on filmic concepts which are considered to be relevant for the documentary, even including information about the number of frames per second in films. The Rhythms of Life focuses on the different rhythms of life of living creatures, which are shown with camera shots in slow or fast motion; these terms are glossed in the introduction. Moreover, explicit mention is made of the use of animated infographics, which is combined in the film with real camera shots. The Spanish AD script features the cinema terms explained in the introduction throughout the film, e.g. la infografa nos muestra (infographics show us);

4 In Spain, there is a useful database for AD and SDH films in Spain, http://cesya.uc3m.es/sabado/, but it does not include all AD documentaries as yet.5 The documentary was distributed by RBA, first as VHS, and later as DVD in 2000, with English and Spanish soundtracks. It does not include the AD, which is only available as VHS at the ONCE library, for the exclusive use of ONCE members. The AD script is by Antonio Vzquez, from Aristia, the company responsible for AD for ONCE. We acknowl-edge the help of Anas Garca Balmaa, Head of the Culture and Sports Department, ONCE, Barcelona, who allowed us to view all the AD documentaries available at the library of ONCE, Barcelona, for the purpose of this research.

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a cmara rpida (in fast motion).6 The RNIB Audio Description Guidelines published in 2005 and not necessarily applicable to Spain do not recom-mend the use of cinema terms. However, James OHara, Managing Editor of the Audio Description Department at ITFC (Independent Television Facilities Centre), agreed that in this case cinema terms could be relevant (personal communication, October 2009). No mention is made of cinema terms in AD script in the Spanish Standards on AD: UNE 153020.7

The additional length of the described documentary did not pose any problem of synchrony as it was released as a VHS intended for a specific audi-ence: the blind community in Spain affiliated to ONCE. However, if it were to be broadcast on TV or added as an optional additional track onto a DVD, the lack of synchrony would be problematic. The same applies to other AD documentaries in Spanish, where the image on screen is frozen while a detailed AD unit is introduced in order to explain specialized images: for example, an account on thermography imaging and a description of the bronchial tree in Incredible Human Machine.8

One of the most recurrent and prominent features of the audio description of this documentary is the use of figures of speech, in particular similes and metaphors, in order to convey the shapes and movements of specific images shown on screen, as can be seen in the following examples:

las hojas se despliegan comolosdedosdelamano al abrirse [leaves unfold like fingers opening]

[clulas] amododesetastransparentes [[cells] liketransparentmushrooms]

La nube de huevos y esperma flota entre delgadas cintas que se mecen sinuosas como serpentinas entre las nubes de confeti de una fiesta

[The cloud of eggs and sperm floats among thin ribbons windinglikestreamersamongcloudsofconfettiataparty]

This figurative language in the AD script is in keeping with the tone of the voice-over narration, both in its English source text and its Spanish transla-tion, which also includes extremely detailed comparisons. This interaction between the style of the AD and that of the narration is consistent with current AD guidelines. Rhetorical language (in particular similes and metaphors) is

6 All translations of AD units are our own.7 The use of cinematic terms in AD is currently being researched, and was the focus of discussions in ARSAD III (Advanced Research Seminar on Audio Description), Barcelona, March 2011); see http://grupsderecerca.uab.cat/arsad/content/2011-seminar (accessed 7 April 2011).8 Incredible Human Machine, National Geographic Society, 1975; translated and audio described in Spanish as El cuerpo humano: la increble mquina humana (1998).

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also a distinctive feature of popular scientific discourse, which helps to con-vey specialized knowledge to general audiences, as is shown by the style of National Geographic documentaries.

There is also a strong connection between the images shown and the films sound track, as can be seen in the following example, in which the description is read against a rhythmic sound track:

Avistadepjaroyacmararpida vemos a los cangrejo[s] basurero horadando por completo toda la superficie de arena. Lamsicamarcaelritmoacelerado de su trabajo de hormiga.

[From abirds-eyeviewandinfastmotion, we see sand-bubbler crabs boring through the sand. Themusicmarkstheacceleratedrhythm of their ant-like task.]

This reflects a general pattern in the narration, which features an extended musical metaphor applied to the varied rhythms in the life of different beings, as signalled in the title of the documentary The Rhythms of Life/Los ritmos de la vida and demonstrated in different examples:

Spanish narration: Va al ritmo dela msica de las mareas perfecta armona English narration: leads a life scoredtothemusic of the tides ... perfect harmony

This interaction between music and images is also found in other National Geo-graphic documentaries. In Incredible Human Machine, human heart beats are described verbally, and also enhanced by drums in the soundtrack of the film.

As in described fiction films, examples of interpretative adjectives can be found, although most current AD guidelines insist on avoiding subjective language given that objectivity is normally expected in scientific discourse. However, these descriptions might be defended from the viewpoint of relating the description to the style of the documentary, based on the spectacular pho-tography which is a distinctive feature of the National Geographic Society:

visin microscpica de la mitosis de una hermosa clula estrellada [microscopic view of the mitosis of a beautiful starlike cell] preciosas bolitas con varios ncleos [lovely little balls with several nuclei]

Nevertheless, in the following two examples there is no clear connection be-tween the image portrayed and the description provided, where the describers subjectivity is clearly in view:

siniestras siluetas [sinister silhouettes] (in reference to bats)

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De orificios desensualaspecto salen chorros de esperma como una nube

[from sensual-looking orifices jets of sperm come out like a cloud] (in reference to coral)

The main drawback in the Spanish AD and its attention to detail is that the resulting descriptions are very long, and have to be read extremely quickly, which can be tiring for audiences, according to studies conducted on Spanish AD users (Hidalgo 2007). Later AD scripts by the same company, Aristia, for the same client, ONCE, are much shorter and more succinct, compared to older Spanish AD, where detailed descriptions, using figurative language, prevail.9

Due to space restrictions, later AD documentaries are not analyzed in depth here; we only make a brief mention of the documentary series Discapacidades Humanas (2006) (Human Disabilities), a TV documentary series of 13 episodes produced with the support of enterprises and institutions working with people with disabilities in Spain. It was described after the publication of Spanish AD Standards, in 2005, and accessibility was considered in the initial design of the product. The series is both audio described and subtitled for deaf and hard of hearing, by Spanish Public TV (RTVE). Its DVD version includes talking menus, as well as optional AD and SDHH.

The AD provided is very succinct and focuses on the place and names of the people involved, which are usually also shown as captions on screen. There is no AD of the infographics shown, a feature which can be easily explained: there are no gaps in the narration. This is a general trend in documentaries in the series, intended for general audiences: few images are used to represent specialized scientific knowledge; when they do appear, the images are not described because of lack of time.

In summary, the most salient feature of the audio described version of Discapacidades Humanas is the concision of the description, which may be due to the following reasons: (1) The Spanish Standards were published a year earlier, in 2005, and recommend a short informative description; (2) studies on audience perception of audio description, carried out between 2005 and 2006, also recommend concision in order to avoid tiredness (Hidalgo 2007); and (3) the needs of the visually impaired are anticipated in the design of the product, generally included in the voice-over narration, so that AD is often deemed unnecessary in a documentary intended for a general audience. These reasons can be linked with the study by Schmeidler and Kirchner (2001) mentioned above, which demonstrated that the positive impact of audio descriptions was greater for programmes with less narration in their original format. Mereijn van der Heijden (2009:17) reports a trend towards concision in European AD:

9 The most recent available documentaries audio described by Aristia are Parque Natural del Delta del Ebro (2000) and Planeta azul (2002).

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An important evolution that has presented itself in the past years is the amount of text used. In the early years, the audio describer always tried to insert the maximum amount of information in between the dialogue. This often led to an overload of information this is still common in North American AD productions. In the UK, the amount of text has been consciously sized down, so the voice-over can read out the AD texts at a calm pace. This makes the AD track much more enjoyable to listen to, while also making it easier to follow the film or programme.

With the new channels of distribution and technical possibilities of interac-tion available in multimedia documents, it is imperative to explore technical solutions which will allow for the description of dynamic images, not only when there is space for them, but also when they are relevant to the specific knowledge being represented.

2.2 Case study 2: The coming neurological epidemic

For the second case study we selected a scientific talk published by TED, The Coming Neurological Epidemic, by Gregory Petsko.10 TED, a project founded by Richard Saul Wurman in 1984, invites experts from different disciplines to share their expertise. Many of the most interesting and innovative scientific projects are presented as talks organized by TED, and available for free on the Internet, to be downloaded and shared under Creative Commons licence. These scientific talks include many forms of multimedia support that can be audio described.

The decision to choose material from the TED Project is directly related to the issue of accessibility. The TED project deals with accessibility in the sense of spreading knowledge without linguistic barriers, as is reflected in the motto of the project: Ideas worth Spreading. Although all the scientific talks published by TED are presented in English, a TED subproject, the Open Translation Project, offers users worldwide the opportunity to subtitle the talks transcribed in English and published on the Internet into different languages. For this purpose it uses dotSUB technology, a free service which allows the uploading, transcribing and subtitling of videos so that users can view them in their own language. The main idea behind the project is to enable the spread of audiovisual material to new audiences using transcriptions and translations voluntarily provided by the user community. This phenomenon is known as crowdsourcing.11 Such efforts to break down linguistic barriers have also made

10 Gregory Petsko by TED :http://www.ted.com/talks/lang/eng/gregory_petsko_on_the_coming_neurological_epidemic.html (accessed 20 February 2011).11 For an examination of the evolution and professional implications of crowdsourcing, see Garcia (2009).

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scientific knowledge available to the deaf and those with hearing impairment. In this sense they fulfil one of the fundamental principles of the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG 2008):

Principle 1: Perceivable Information and user interface components must be presentable to users in ways they can perceive.Guideline 1.1 Text Alternatives: Provide text alternatives for any non-text content so that it can be changed into other forms people need, such as large print, braille, speech, symbols or simpler language.

It is of considerable interest therefore, in this global, scientific, multilingual and accessibility-conscious context, to analyze the possibilities of audio describing the visual resources supporting one of these talks, so that the blind or visu-ally impaired can fully access and enjoy its contents. This interest reflects the growing trend towards using visual resources in scientific presentations; the desire of the visually impaired to have access to audio described technical and scientific material (Schmeidler and Kirchner 2001:205); and the positive im-pact of such access on the acquisition of knowledge by users (ibid.:202-03).

The structure of the analysis follows a prototype of specifications that may be used for subsequent systematic collection of data to develop a multimedia corpus for consultation. For this purpose, we first prepared the documentary sheet for the multimedia talk (Table 1). In the final cell of Table 1 we indi-cate the visual support units that are likely to be audio described. The audio description units (ADUs) correspond to each of these support elements and require information linked to the resources they describe, as per the model in Table 2.

ID No. 1Title The coming neurological epidemicAuthor Gregory PetskoPublisher / Video editor TED

Length 350Textual and visual typology

Scientific talk with visual support elements

Table 1. Documentary sheet for a multimedia scientific talk

Following the structure proposed in Table 2, we analyzed all the visual support elements shown below, and identified our own ADUs. In preparing the ADUs, we did not restrict this to the space that the speaker may leave between each phrase, given the difficulties this causes in conventional AD use, as seen in

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case study one. Our proposal to enable the talk to be presented technically in a way that is totally accessible is presented below.

IDNo.:OrderNo.timeofonset

The ID No. is that of the documentary sheet in Table 1. The order number cor-responds to the appearance of the resource and the time of appearance

Classofimaging

Types

Animation 2D, 3DChart histogram, bar chart, pie chart, line

chart, cartogramPhoto B/W, ColourDrawing artistic, computer, sketch,

technicalMap Map: political, physicalBiomedical imaging

electron microscope imagingMagnetic resonance imaging, radiography, tomography, ultrasonography

Mind map cyclical, radial, converging, hierarchical, interacting comparison, linear

Table numeric, alphanumeric Sign & symbols

Transcription of the talk by the speaker Screen shot of the first frame where the visual resource appears

Commentary on the difficulties involved in describing the image

ADU

Table 2. Descriptive sheet for the ADUs

1:1 00:27 Map Political world map Unless we do something to prevent it, over the next 40 years were facing an epidemic of neurologic diseases on a global scale. A cheery thought. On this map, every country thats colored blue has more than 20 percent of its population over the age of 65. This is the world we live in.Although the speaker uses the expression On this map, he does not state that it is a map of the world. He also refers to countries coloured in blue which we should see with words.

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ADU: Map of the world with Japan and almost all of Europe in blue.1:2 00:36 Map Political world mapAnd this is the world your children will live in.

If we state all the countries that are not coloured in blue, this could be a never-ending list and therefore the problem is solved by excluding some zones such as the centre of the American continent or some islands of Oceania. ADU: Map of the world in which everything is blue except Greenland, the Mid-dle East and Africa excluding North Africa.

1:3 00:40 Chart Three histograms For 12,000 years, the distribution of ages in the hu-man population has looked like a pyramid, with the oldest on top. Its already flattening out. By 2050, its going to be a column and will start to invert.

Although there is a support element in the form of the graph with three columns, an AD is not necessary since the speaker explains the features of the graph. However, an AD unit could be used for repetition purposes and thus consolidate knowledge.ADU: Chart comprised of three histograms showing the evolution over time of the distribution of the global population. The population segments are grouped into cohorts in blocks of ages, represented as horizontal bars from a common axis; men to the left and women to the right. Thus, the first histogram representing the population up to 1950 has a pyramid structure. The base of the pyramid on the second histogram, representing the current population, is much smaller. In the third histogram, forecasting what will happen in 2050, it has become a column.

1:4 00:55 Chart Line chart This is why its happening. The average lifespans more than doubled since 1840, and its increasing currently at the rate of about five hours every day.

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We have decided not to specify the additional estimate information, since we do not think it is essential to describe the graph in words. ADU: Line chart with the horizontal axis showing the declining early/mid-life mortality from 1840 and developing into late life mortality from 1960, with an outlook up to 2040. Life expectancy in years is represented on the vertical axis. The line on the graph shows continuous and geometric progression.

1:5 01:05 Chart (2) Line chart (2 lines each)And this is why thats not entirely a good thing: because over the age of 65, your risk of getting Alzheimers or Parkinsons Disease will increase exponentially.

Since there are two graphs on the same slide, our ADU refers to both. How-ever, it does not provide an analysis as this is not part of the remit of the audio describer. ADU: 2 Line charts with two lines each. The first chart shows the evolution in the number of Alzheimers sufferers, with one line for women and another for men. The horizontal axis shows cohorts in blocks of age which represent the age in years of the sufferers. The vertical axis shows the cases of those affected per every 1000 people. The lines are ascending and the line corresponding to women sufferers is greater. The second chart shows the evolution in the number of Parkinsons sufferers. The line for men sufferers is significantly greater than that of women.

1:6 01:15 Chart Histogram By 2050, therell be about 32 million people in the United States over the age of 80, and unless we do something about it, half of them will have Alzheimers Disease and three million more will have Parkinsons Disease.

We decided to provide the data for the earliest date, that of the current year and the last date, so that the evolution of this phenomenon showed in the graph may be appreciated. ADU: Histogram showing the evolution of the population over 80 in the US suffering from Alzheimers or Parkinsons from 1900 when it was determined that there were 0.4 million sufferers. The graph shows progressive evolution which reaches 11.4 in 2010. The forecast for 2050 is 31.6 million.

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1:7 01:33 Table Alphanumeric table with three columns

Right now, those and other neurologic diseases for which we have no cure or prevention cost about a third of a trillion dollars a year. It will be well over a trillion dollars by 2050.

The difficulty in this case is deciding whether we should transcribe all the data shown in the table. Not to do so seems too simplistic and if we were to break it down completely, we would not be applying criteria for selecting and prioritiz-ing information. We have therefore decided to state the type of illness without expanding on the abbreviations, and we do not state the number of cases and costs per illness. However, if the presentation was being given for uses with more specific interests, the entire table would have to be published in a format which could be read by a voice synthesizer.

ADU: The table shows the cost generated by neurological diseases and those of the nervous system. The information is organized into three columns: The first identifies the types of illness, the second the total number of cases in the US and the third the healthcare costs per year. The illnesses included are: All depressive disorders; Alzheimers disease; Huntingtons disease; Parkinsons disease; ALS for Lou; Gerings disease; FTDP-17, PSP, CBO, MSA, Picks; Traumatic head injury; Multiple Sclerosis; Spinal cord injury; Stroke; Schizophrenia The total healthcare cost per year amounts to $334.9 billion. Gross domestic product in the U.S. is 12,770 billion.

1:8 01:45 Drawing Computer drawing Alzheimers Disease starts when a protein that should be folded up prop-erly misfolds into a kind of demented origami.

We decided not to state the colour of the images as it is not relevant.

ADU: The slide shows a perfect paper bird to the left and a crumpled paper to its right.

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1:9 01:52 Biomedical imaging

Electron microscope imaging

So one approach were taking is to try to design drugs that function like molecular Scotch tape, to hold the protein into its proper shape.

ADU: Three electron microscope images of neurons. There are two arrows coming from the first image towards the other two images. One shows healthy neurons and the other damaged neurons.

1:10 02:00 Recreation of a dissected brain

Computer drawing

That would keep it from forming the tangles that seem to kill large sections of the brain when they do.

In line with Mrquezs strategy (2007:215), we only include the colour char-acteristics when we consider this relevant for providing more information relating to the scientific rather than the aesthetic concept. We therefore decided to include information on the colour since in this context it has more conceptual connotations. ADU: Drawing of a brain cut in half. One part represents a healthy brain in a lighter colour and the other shows a brain damaged by Alzheimers whose darker zones show shrunken parts.

1:11 02:11 Power Point: diagram (New Idea)Interestingly enough, other neurological diseas-es which affect very different parts of the brain also show tangles of misfolded protein, which suggest that the approach might be a general one, and might be used to cure many neurologic diseases, not just Alzheimers Disease. Theres also a fascinating connection to cancer here, because people with neurologic diseases have a very low incidence of most cancers.

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The problem here is the abbreviations which refer to different pathologies linked to neurological disorders. Presumably, the people seeing the talk directly are either not able to expand upon all the abbreviations or to identify them in the few seconds during which the slide appears. However, since we believe that the most important information in this case is that the solution that may be found for PD (Parkinsons Disease) or for AD (Alzheimers Disease) may help alleviate other illnesses, we have decided to expand upon the abbreviations in all cases.

ADU: In this slide we read: New Idea: theyre just different manifestations of the same underlying disease. Between AD (for Alzheimers disease) and PD (for Parkinsons disease) are the following abbreviations: Picks for Pick disease; FTDP-17 for Frontotemporal dementia and parkinsonism linked to chromosome 17; PSP for Progressive supranuclear palsy; CBD for Corticobasal degeneration; DLB for Dementia with Lewy bodies; GSS for GerstmannStrusslerSchein-ker syndrome; HSD for Hallervorden-Spatz disease; MSA for Multiple system atrophy. If thats true, then finding a treatment for any of them should help in treating all of them.

1:12 02:32 Photos Colour photos And this is a connection that most people arent pursuing right now, but which were fascinated by. Most of the important and all of the creative work in this area is being funded by private philanthropies. And theres tremendous scope for additional private help here, because the government has dropped the ball on much of this, Im afraid.

In this case we have decided to name the people appearing in the photographs, but without describing their features, which are not relevant here.

ADU: The slide shows photos of people representing the Foundations. Mcknight Endowment for Neuroscience; Ellison Medical Foundation; Michael J. Fox Foun-dation; Dr. Miriam and Sheldon G. Adelson Medical Research Foundation.

1:13 2:57 Slide with text Text In the meantime, while were waiting for all these things to happen, heres what you can do for yourself. If you want to lower your risk of Par-kinsons Disease, caffeine is protective to some extent; nobody knows why. Head injuries are bad for you. They lead to Parkinsons Disease. And the Avian Flu is also not a good idea.

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There is a slide containing textual information that the speaker goes through in the talk; in principle it does not need to be audio described. However, if it is audio described, the entire text should be read.

ADU: (The text that appears in the screen shot)

1:14 3:08 Slide with text Text

As far as protecting yourself against Alzheim-ers Disease, well, it turns out that fish oil has the effect of reducing your risk for Alzheimers Disease.

Like No. 13ADU: (The text that appears in the screen shot)

1:15 3:40 Map Political world mapYou should also keep your blood pressure down, because chronic high blood pressure is the biggest single risk factor for Alzheimers Disease. Its also the biggest risk factor for glaucoma, which is just Alzheimers Disease of the eye. And of course, when it comes to cognitive effects, use it or lose it applies, so you want to stay mentally stimulated. But hey, youre listening to me. So youve got that covered. And one final thing. Wish people like me luck, okay? Because the clock is ticking for all of us. The same image of visual support 1:2ADU: The map of the world appears for a second time, in which everything is blue except for Africa and Greenland.

As these examples show, AD units are determined by the specific re-quirements of AD and the diversity of communicative purposes, modes of presentation, and variety of visual and graphic supports that are present in scientific multimedia documents. We are aware that our solutions are only ten-tative, since further analyses of existing audio described documents would be necessary to establish general guidelines for the audio description of multimedia scientific talks. These would help to improve the practices of Visual Assistive Discourses that attempt to make other texts such as textbooks and hypermedia accessible to persons with visual impairments (Piety 2003:15-16).

Current guidelines on AD, mentioned above, recommend that audio de-scribers consult documentation related to the field and subject matter dealt with in the work (AENOR UNE 153020 2005:7). This can be seen in the examples analyzed above, which show that audio describers of scientific productions need to master specific terminology, while using a simple syntax and style

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to explain the images. Although current guidelines do not dwell on specific types of text likely to be audio described, a classification of such text types is necessary in future research, as it would help considerably to identify the communicative purpose and visual resources used for different multimedia products. Standardization and classification of visual supports could shape the decisions that audio describers have to make, since such decisions are mainly guided by visual perception. As is widely known, visual perception infers more than the eye sees, and this process is guided by the brain via selective logic. It would therefore be useful to conduct further research into the specificity of audio description of scientific visual materials. It is for this reason that we proposed a typology of visual supports specifically for the talk analyzed. The typology may be expanded and refined in future guidelines for the audio description of scientific documents. Such guidelines might also incorporate the need for authors of presentations to prepare their visual material, such as tables and graphs, in a format that can be easily read by a voice synthesizer.

3. Technologyforaccessibility:SMIL(SynchronizedMultimedia IntegrationLanguage)

One of the problems dealt with in the first case analyzed, the audio description of documentaries, relates to the actual space available for introducing an audio described phrase. The AD locution sounds somewhat forced, with hurried dic-tion. The reproduction of a documentary for uninterrupted broadcasting on the television or in the cinema and, finally on DVD, presents technical difficulties that seem to be solved more easily in other contexts.

Where would the audio descriptions suggested for the Petsko talk on TED fit in, especially since some are quite long? The answer has to start with the fact that this is a multimedia talk published on the Internet, and hence relies on web technology, which is constantly evolving and part of its evolution involves designing relatively simple solutions for complex issues such as accessibility. The World Wide Web Consortium (W3C), active since 1997, launched the Web Accessibility Initiative (WAI), which includes the development of the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) as part of its remit. These guidelines have been fundamental both in developing technologies and web tools and in attending to legal aspects relating to web accessibility.

Synchronized Multimedia Integration Language (SMIL)12 is a standard format of tags based on XML meta-language created by the W3C to allow inclusion of information in video encoding so that the web browser can read subtitles and audio descriptions. The format combines different resources (audio, video, images, text and animation), ensuring synchronization between

12 Available athttp://www.w3.org/TR/REC-smil/, http://www.w3.org/TR/smil20/ and http://www.w3.org/TR/WCAG-TECHS/smil.html (accessed 20 February 2011).

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them. To return to the initial problem, using SMIL encoding, ADUs can be included without any synchronization problems or overlaps with the original voice of the speaker. This is done by fragmenting the audio or video files into a series of files which are then reproduced in sequence. SMIL facilitates the encoding of the audio description, which is included either as a pre-recorded sound unit or simply as a written text corresponding to each ADU. The ADUs are reproduced, and in the event of the length of the unit interfering with the synchronization of the original audio, the player freezes the image.13 In the first case the audio file is reproduced; in the second a voice synthesizer is activated (text-to-speech system)14 to resume the video automatically once each of the ADUs has been read. Once the document has been encoded in the SMIL format, a SMIL compatible player must be installed on the computer15 or, preferably, a browser that can execute the SMIL files.16

We believe that the technical hurdles highlighted in experiments conducted by Moreno et al. (2007) and Catenazzi and Sommaruga (2008) for example incompatibility with the format of the most popular browsers can be over-come, depending on how effectively audio description can be promoted as a practice with social benefits and the implementation of a technical platform to make this popular among users. As we have already mentioned, the TED project supports accessibility because it was developed from the start on the basis of using online subtitling technology, resulting in the creation by its volunteers of thousands of files with subtitles in multiple languages. Should we not expect the same in terms of audio descriptions? The TED project is the perfect channel for achieving these goals. Content is mainly provided by users, making TED a social media platform, social media being a term used to describe web services whose content is edited by volunteers (Lietsala and Sirkkunen 2008:13). Other successful cases demonstrate the scope of social media; these include Wikipedia, online dictionaries that are updated by sug-gestions from users (Wordreference, LEO), Google Translator, where users can participate by suggesting better translations than those proposed by the system, and Fan Subs, the predecessors of online subtitling projects (Prez-Gonzlez 2006).

13 In The Rhythms of Life the image is also frozen during the 15-minute introduction added to the Spanish AD. In The Incredible Machine the image is frozen twice, for a few seconds, while describing detailed images.14 There are numerous online tutorials on SMIL which explain all the advantages, includ-ing the following : http://www.cwi.nl/~media/SMIL/Tutorial/ and http://www.w3schools.com/smil/default.asp> (accessed 20 February 2011).15 Apples Quicktime player, Windows Media Player and RealNetworks RealPlayer sup-port SMIL.16 For more information on technical limitations with regard to the application of SMIL and the possibilities for improving its implementation, see the SMIL experiments conducted by Moreno et al. (2007) and Catenazzi and Sommaruga (2008).

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4. Conclusionsandfuturelinesofaction

Although some existing guidelines for audio description can be applied to scientific AD, the analysis of the first documentary and the ADUs proposed for the multimedia talk in the second case study highlight the specific nature of scientific AD. This specificity is closely linked to the particular communi-cative purpose of the scientific documents in question, which are intended to be accessible to different types of audiences, as well as the resources used to convey specialist knowledge. Discussion of two types of scientific multimedia products also shows that each multimedia product requires specific visual resources, the audio description of which demands standardization.

This article presented an alternative mode of AD and contrasted it with the existing audio description standards applied in the audiovisual world. We also proposed a typology specifically designed for the visual resources employed in the TED talk. We are very conscious of the limits of our analysis. The proposed model, which is the result of a qualitative analysis of specific audiovisual and multimedia resources, cannot be extrapolated to other resources before further quantitative analyses are conducted. As a means of expanding on the proposal and to facilitate a quantitative analysis, we suggest as a future line of research the creation of an AD corpus specifically intended for scientific multimedia documents, based on a systematic collection of data from different supports and involving the participation of blind and visually impaired users to evaluate satisfaction levels. On the one hand, this would cover the diversity of scientific multimedia audio description units and, on the other, it would help to develop working AD guidelines for scientific multimedia documents.

With regard to the technical difficulties arising from the inclusion of ADUs in the files, we suggest that the speed of implementing audio descriptions will be directly linked to their popularity among users and the availability of volunteers able to describe the images. For example, in the TED environment, a user-friendly implementation, along with a simple audio description guide, would almost certainly encourage many people to describe visual resources for non-profit purposes; it would also encourage the visually impaired com-munity to provide feedback on the proposals. Based on the data collected, a corpus could be created comprising ADUs for talks published by TED which would complement the general multimedia corpus described above. Likewise, AD scripts may be translated directly from available audio descriptions, or they may be generated without using the source language of the talks, which is English. The analysis of the data collected could also provide answers to questions raised by other researchers (Bourne and Jimnez 2007) regarding whether the AD scripts are language dependent and whether they should be localized or, on the contrary, a type of interlingua with an independent control-led language could be used as a basis for translation (Jimnez 2007).

With respect to the question of whether 100% accessibility to multimedia

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scientific texts can be achieved, we believe that this does not depend on AD only or, more generally, on other accessibility modes, such as SDHH (Subti-tling for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing) or sign language interpreting. It also depends on the way authors present their knowledge and on the end users. Successful access depends on the cognitive capacity of end users, their previ-ous knowledge, their interest in the issue and other variable environmental and emotional factors. With regard to the way in which knowledge is presented, it is hoped that the tenets of universal design will be increasingly considered from the start and will take into account both the needs of the users and their active participation in the product design process.

LIDIA CMARA Spanish Language Coordinator for the Open Translation Project by TED.com and researcher at GISTAL, Centre of Psychological and Linguistic Develop-ment, Oral and Written Language Acquisition, Autonomous University of Barcelona, 08193 Bellaterra (Cerdanyola del Valls), Spain. [email protected] EVA ESPASADepartment of Translation and Interpreting, University of Vic, Carrer de la Laura, 13080500 Vic, Spain. [email protected]

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The Audiodescription of Scientific - 2014

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Transcript of The Audiodescription of Scientific - 2014