In this article, we will talk about how blind and visually impaired people watch films or series and which technologies do they utilize to understand what goes on in films or series.
A sighted person can understand what goes on in a film or series by looking at the screen. Can a blind visually impaired person understand what he/she watches? To what extent can he/she follow the flow of the film or series? When there is no dialog, how can a visually impaired person understand what is happening in the series? Is there any technology available that can tell a blind and visually impaired person everything that happens in the film or series?
First of all, let’s answer the question “how do blind and visually impaired people use their senses while watching a film or a series?”
Firstly, a blind and visually impaired person can watch a film or a series as in real life, using the information that comes from hearing. For example, one of the simplest items that can be understood by hearing is dialog. Since most of the film or series explain most of the things with dialogs, the scenario can be understood in basic outlines.
So, if there isn’t any dialog, how can a blind and visually impaired person understand what goes on in a film or a series?
Where there isn’t any dialog or in fighting or battle scenes, the music or the sounds can be utilized. For example, if tense music is playing, this points to an exciting situation, depending on the plot of the film or series.
To give a series with fighting scenes as an example, tense music and sounds of weapons being fired indicate a situation where there is armed conflict. A blind and visually impaired person can understand that there is a conflict by hearing the sounds, but for example, who killed whom in a fight or which side overcame the other side might not be understood. However, a person can realize what just happened from the dialogs after a conflict or from the scenes like laughing or crying.
Are there any audio signals except the music that help to understand what is going on?
In the series, sounds are sometimes echoed to indicate past tense. Noticing this detail in the sound, a blind and visually impaired person can understand, according to the situation, that the event has been in the past, or the character had a memory or this was either a dream or a thought.
In some situations, when someone is talking about somebody, the sound could be faded or muffled, in this case, this indicates that someone is listening to the person who is talking. If we were to give an example from a Turkish series, the person who hears the conversation coincidentally is usually the person who is being talked about and a drama might unfold after that conversation.
So, what if the events mentioned above don’t happen and if there is a scene with only a view and no sound, how can the plot be understood?
This time a technology called audio description, in which human voice is inserted onto the audio of the film or series where there are no dialog steps in.
The above-mentioned techniques except for audio description, of them, have a margin of error, but when there is audio description included, the person can exactly understand what is going on.
How is an audio description made?
The audio description is made by inserting sounds that explain what is going on by a human voice onto the audio of a series or a film, usually between pauses where there is no dialog. How to reach the already made audio descriptions is another topic of interest. The question “how can we find audio-described films or series?” directly comes into mind.
Audio-described series can be found in places like Netflix, in the internet libraries that are created for the visually impaired, and on some of the websites of some Turkish tv channels.
The audio-described version of the series generally appears on the website of the channels after the given episode of the series is published. We have to note that creating audio descriptions is a troublesome job and due to this very reason, it takes a long time.
Finally, we can end our article by answering the question “what does watching a series, or a film add to a blind and visually impaired person?”
Watching a series or a film is a fun and sometimes informative activity that many people do to spend their free time. The participation of visually impaired people in this activity could be useful for their integration into the community.
Of course, there isn’t a rule that says everyone should watch films or series, but the point we want to stress here is that even without an audio description, visually impaired people can utilize these contents.
Films or series could be a subject to socialize, or they could be thrown in if there isn’t anything left to talk about. It adds fun where it’s talked about, and it inspires some people.
As we state in our articles, we as BlindLook, envision a future where visually impaired people are included and integrated into society.
Author: Fatih Yüksek / BlindLook Team
