Up to 1,500 blind people are expected to attend the conference, which is an initiative of the American Council of the Blind. The sessions will cover a wide range of topics, including audio description standards, advocacy to make the service more visible, audio description for the performing arts and museums, audio description in Spanish and how to become an audio describer.
The speakers will include Karen Peltz-Strauss of the Federal Communications Commission, who was instrumental in framing legislation which makes a minimum level of audio description compulsory on American TV. Other speakers include Joel Snyder, the director of the Audio Description Project, who will be launching his book The Visual Made Verbal: A Comprehensive Guide to the History and Applications of Audio Description.
The conference will be held at the Riviera Casino and Hotel, 13-15 July, in Las Vegas, Nevada. For more information and the full program, go to the Audio Description Project webpage.
Audio description is available on television in many countries, including the UK, Canada and New Zealand. In Australia, the momentum for an audio description service on TV appears to have stalled. Despite a successful 13-week trial on ABC1 in 2012, there has been no further word from the Federal Government or the ABC about the introduction of a regular service.
See our Audio description on TV page for further information.
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