Audio Description: A Laboratory for the Development of a new Professional Profile Erasmus Project

Project Title

Audio Description: A Laboratory for the Development of a new Professional Profile

Project Key Action

This project related with these key action: Cooperation for innovation and the exchange of good practices

Project Action Type

This project related with this action type : Strategic Partnerships for higher education

Project Call Year

This project’s Call Year is 2016

Project Topics

This project is related with these Project Topics: New innovative curricula/educational methods/development of training courses; Open and distance learning; Research and innovation

Project Summary

Audio description (AD) for people with sight loss (PSL) is a new form of accessible translation that connects PSL with the visual reality they live in. AD is a verbal description illustrating the visual elements of an audio visual product for PSL. In spite of the importance of AD, the professional figure of the audio describer is not yet fully recognised and a systematic training is not evenly offered over Europe. As a consequence, notwithstanding the promotion of an inclusive society, the professional figures working in the field of AD are still few, often untrained and not well defined.

The main aim of ADLAB PRO was to fill this gap by defining a course curriculum and developing a varied set of online, open access, flexible training materials to form new AD professionals or to refine their current skills.

The project was carried out through the synergy of eight educational and non-educational partners with the aim of delineating a professional profile that can meet multiple market needs as well as creating a flexible course curriculum capable of training effectively future AD experts. The academic partners in the project were the University of Trieste (Italy) acting as coordinator, the Autonomous University of Barcelona (Spain), the University of Antwerp (Belgium), and the Adam Mickiewicz University (Poland). The non-academic partners included Utopian Voices, a private UK company supplying high-quality AD, training, research and data analysis in the field of AVT; Soundfocus, an audio post-production studio specialized in media accessibility and responsible for all major AD projects in The Netherlands; RTV Slovenija, the national public radio and TV house; and the Royal National Institute for the Blind, a UK charity for the blind.

The project IOs, all leading to tangible results, were six and led to the production of a snapshot of the current AD training practices in Europe (IO1), the outline of the AD professional profile, its required skills and its competences (IO2). ADLAB PRO also delineated a course curriculum (IO3) based on different types of AD – including screen AD, AD of dynamic performances and events, recorded AD for static arts and environments, AD integrated in revoiced translation modes, AD for new audiences and AD interacting with new technologies – and it created open, free, modular and fully customizable training materials (IO4) based on constant internal and external evaluation and testing (IO5). The project also looked at the accreditation of the educational components for both academic and vocational scenarios through the attribution of ECTS (European Credit Transfer System) and ECVETS (European Credit System for Vocational Education and Training) to each of the six modules constituting the whole course.

In terms of results and impact, the creation of training materials (open access, accessible, online) is expected to secure opportunities for youth workers and to enable them to learn different AD practices, to take part in unique training activities, and to see their formal and non-formal learning recognized. In fact, ADLAB PRO secures transparency and recognition of skills to facilitate learning, employability and labour mobility. Furthermore, in the long run, such systematic training should contribute to the full establishment of the new professional figure of the audio describer.

Besides affecting directly higher education as well as trainees interested in AD and the AVT market, the results of ADLAB PRO are expected to have a long-term impact on a wide spectrum of potential beneficiaries of the audio descriptions that will be produced by the new AD professionals. These include the blind and visually impaired communities and more in general a wide array of persons with specific needs who might find it easier to listen rather than to watch or read audiovisual information.

EU Grant (Eur)

Funding of the project from EU: 443248,47 Eur

Project Coordinator

UNIVERSITA DEGLI STUDI DI TRIESTE & Country: IT

Project Partners

• Soundfocus B.V.
• UNIVERSITEIT ANTWERPEN
• RADIOTELEVIZIJA SLOVENIJA JAVNI ZAVOD LJUBLJANA
• Utopian Voices Ltd.
• UNIVERSITAT AUTONOMA DE BARCELONA
• UNIWERSYTET IM. ADAMA MICKIEWICZA W POZNANIU
• ROYAL NATIONAL INSTITUTE OF THE BLIND