Developments in audio description services for museums, galleries and the arts

Transcript

25 October 2015

Roberta: There has been a recent build-up of audio described tours in Australian museums and a steady flow of audio described live performance in venues across the country. However, a newer development is providing an AD service online for museums and galleries. Media Access Australia's CEO, Alex Varley, is here to discuss a recent audio description development in the UK making use of this technique. Welcome, Alex.

Alex: Hi there, Roberta.

Roberta: Now, what is an online version of a museum or gallery tour?

Alex: Well, if you could imagine there's lots of museums and galleries around the world and if you think about it most people who might like to visit those can't actually do that because they are just too far away physically. So a trend over the last 10 years or so with the internet has been that these museums and galleries actually recreate their collections online. So they have not just pictures of things but quite detailed information and 3D renderings and using all the different technology that they can. So if you can't get to the museum for whatever reason, and usually that's a physical location but it could also be a disability, then you can actually access the thing online.

Roberta: Now, the British Museum has introduced audio description on part of its service. What exactly has it done?

Alex: Yeah, this is quite a new development and I think quite an exciting one, obviously especially for blind and people with vision impairments in that it's actually started with 20 objects from five of its galleries. So it ranges for Egyptian sculpture through to African things and some of the things from the Enlightenment. It's really done this audio description of each of those objects. So you could log on there and get a full description about everything to do with the object and that's been done by Vocal Eyes who are a British organisation that are better known for their live description of theatre and other performances.

Roberta: Is the audio description like the description that you might get on, say, the television services or DVDs?

Alex: No, it's different in that if you think about television and DVD type audio description that's where they're telling you what's going on in the scene at the time but they don't want to give away too much information, so you're not getting a big version of the plot. With this, it's actually a really enhanced description, so it's not just actually telling you what the object looks like but it's giving you all the background and other sort of historical information. So the idea is to get a really rich experience of that object.

Roberta: Well, many people would really love to access the collections of the world's greatest museums and galleries, so is this part of a wider push to make these services accessible?

Alex: Yes, well, what I've seen is not necessarily just within blindness but particularly with physical disabilities. There's things ranging from a tour of the Jenolan Caves in New South Wales, which the CSIRO did with the Caves themselves, and that allows people with physical disabilities that prevent them going in the caves to actually go inside them and tour around them. I've also seen probably one of the first ones that was done this way, was the Siberian Railway, so a virtual version of actually going on the five-day version of it, which is the full one, or there's a kind of highlights one and that's used, again, with all sorts of access features around it. So museums and galleries want to get more people accessing their collection, even if they can't physically get there, and they have also realised that this is a great way to help people with disabilities. I think the British Museum has got a lot of profile and the fact that they've started doing this service, and they've said they're going to add to it, so they'll do more and more in the collection, I think other museums will pick up on that pretty quickly. Of course, the great thing is if you're in Australia you can access the British Museum from here.

Roberta: Wow that sounds wonderful.

Alex: It's a trend that it's easy for them to do and, of course, they're also developing some of these description things for their museums themselves for people who visit. So if you're a blind person and you go and visit these sites you can usually pick up like an audio guide that has audio description as part of it. So they're kind of doing this thing anyway and what they're working out is stick it online and other people can access it. Of course, these things are all free because they are all public museums.

Roberta: Well, for more information on audio description in the arts you can call Media Access Australia on 02 9212 6242 or email info@mediaaccess.org.au. Thank you, Alex, for that today. That's another great innovation and I hope that people with use that.

Alex: Yes, thank you, Roberta. I'm excited too.

Roberta: I've been speaking with Media Access Australia CEO, Alex Varley, and you can visit the website of Media Access Australia and that is simply www.mediaaccess.org.au. Media Access Australia is a proud supporter of this program.

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