Audio description makes media content more accessible. The narrations paint the picture audibly in incredible detail that the visual content comes to life for viewers with low vision. Videos with audio descriptions carry the symbol AD))).
However, adding the descriptions is not that easy. The people handling the process need to write the audio description first, and sometimes they have to make a judgment call and difficult choices. It is challenging to decide what to describe, when to describe the parts, and what the screen shows. Usually, audio description is used when the video material has critical information that can only be portrayed visually. Some of the instances include scene changes, costumes, facial expressions, changes in speaker, and text on the screen.
Primary types of audio description
- Standard audio description. For recorded video content, there are two types of audio descriptions. You can use standard description when the description clips are inserted into the described content’s natural pauses. Standard audio description is perfect for videos with lengthy breaks in dialogues and parts with no speech. It allows the describer to add pertinent descriptions to the content based on the available space.
- Extended audio description. Adding an audio description is more challenging for more complicated videos, such as university lectures, with more visual content than lengthy pauses. With this type of video, the most suitable option is extended audio description, so look for trustworthy extended audio description services.
Requirements for extended audio transcription
The work for extended audio descriptions is slightly different from when creating standard audio descriptions. The task is not limited to the video’s natural pauses. In this process, the program or software lets you pause the video content to give you time to add the description as needed by the specific video clip. When you watch a video with an extended audio description, you will notice that the video and the description will start simultaneously. When there is an extended description, the video will pause momentarily, allowing the narration to continue. Once the narrative ends, the video resumes playback. The pauses can happen several times during the entire length of the video if there are several extended audio descriptions.
You extend the narration for specific clips and the video with an extended audio description since the material includes more information.
There are several materials where an extended audio description is practical, such as:
- Movies and TV shows where their scenes change swiftly, fast-paced action is present, and where rapid dialogue does not leave enough room for pauses so that you can add descriptions
- Classroom instructions and university lectures, where the presentation contains more photos, data, and various visual information
- Corporate training videos, company-wide presentations, and financial reports containing plenty of graphs, charts, and other graphics
Ensure that you work with specialists who provide extended audio descriptions and have the right tools to give you high-quality and accurate descriptions for your media content. They are trained to analyze videos carefully to enable them to write extended audio descriptions that make sense, follow the program’s flow, and convey the intended message of the video.
