a corpus-based approach to the language of audio description

W3C group and is included in the guidelines aimed at web developers,
designers and authoring tools managers to make online multimedia content
more accessible to a wider audience.
Although both „video description‟ and „audio description‟ seem to be
used in the same context to indicate the same practice, that is AD, we believe
there is a slight difference between them. In particular, the term „audio
description‟ is meant to represent the product of the AD process (an audio
track) and is mainly oriented towards the target audience, which can only
hear or partially see. The term „videodescription‟ seems to refer more to the
source product and, in particular, to its visual component to be transferred in
the AD process and to the source community of audio describers or sighted
people to whom the visual elements are fully accessible. According to the
Arts Access Inc. by the American Council of the Blind, the word
„videodescription‟ tends to be used more for DVD and TV, while „audio
description‟ is more often associated with performing arts, theatres and
museums 11 . The LARRS (Los Angeles Radio Reading Service) also defines
„audio description‟ and „video description‟ as follows 12 :
Audio Description – Audio description for low vision and blind people is the
art and technique of using the natural pauses in dialog or narration during live
theatre performances to insert descriptions of the essential visual elements:
actions, appearance of characters, body language, costumes and settings,
11 See http://www.artsaccessinc.org/definition.html (last accessed 19/02/2011).
12 Unless otherwise specified, bold faces are in the original quotations.
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