Nicola Owen from Audio Described Aotearoa was our inspiring guest at a recent Warkworth Low Vision Support Group meeting. Putting blind and vision impaired people in the picture is what Nicola does for a living.
Nicola Owen
Making it easier for organisations to provide audio description for blind and vision impaired people.
Nicola’s audio description training was back in 2011. She set up Audio Described Aotearoa in 2014 with her partner, Paul Brown, who is blind. There was demand in New Zealand and they wanted to make it easier for organisations and venues to provide audio description for blind and vision impaired people.
The range of arts and cultural events that are audio described is increasing rapidly. It includes theatres, chamber music, award ceremonies, opera, contemporary dance, photography and art exhibitions, conference presentations, local festivals and events, children’s theatre, museums and galleries, sculpture and botanical gardens.
Nicola explained how for each different art form the audio description is adapted accordingly to ensure high-quality delivery. The principles are the same; to describe what is seen in an objective way so that the audience can draw their own conclusions and opinions about the performance, exhibition or presentation.
For some events, such as tours, patrons can ask questions along the way and so audio description allows time for this to happen. For other events, audio description needs to be developed sensitively. For theatre productions, it’s important not to give away the plot: for example, when a character is “in disguise” and the disguise is removed later on during the show. This sensitivity to the essence of each production is crucial.
The audience listens to the description of a play through headsets and hears words that describe the action. The whole process of preparing audio description – from marking up the script and allowing silence where there’s dialogue or important gaps in the action on stage to finding the right words to describe what is seen – takes about 25 hours of preparation for each hour of the show.
Nicola outlined the particular challenges of dance. Blind or vision impaired people may not have had previous access to dance and so dance vocabulary also needs to be made accessible. This is where touch tours and workshops can be particularly useful: for example, an acrobat might allow a blind person to feel the position their body will be in during a contortion, or a blind person could be shown how to move their arm in a particular way so they can physically experience the meaning of dance terminology.
In audio describing children’s theatre shows, an age-appropriate vocabulary needs to be used and the tone of voice needs to vary. It’s hugely important that blind and vision impaired children are able to access the arts, so they can experience creativity as fully as possible and also expect to be able to participate in the arts.
Touch tours add great value whenever there’s visual or sensory material included as part of the event. With opera productions, for example, touch tours are a particularly important part of the experience. These companies invest huge energy and resources into costumes, set design, props and so on. During touch tours, the set, props and costumes can be experienced using touch. Some opera productions have hugely elaborate costumes made of velvet or lace; others have masks and head-dresses made from cardboard and all kinds of materials. Touch tours are also particularly effective when the actors or singers participate. If their voices can be heard in advance of the show, patrons can identify who is speaking or singing. Touch tours also work well for art and sculpture exhibitions, garden tours and gallery visits. Really, anything that involves tactile objects or materials being part of the whole experience.
Part of their work is in developing new audiences. We are keen to reach out to older people who are losing their sight to let them know audio description is available so they can continue to enjoy the arts.
Follow them on FaceBook and see some of the recent events they have been at, Disney on Ice, Auckland Theatre Company, and a wet night at Eden Park in July when the All Blacks played.