Tell Me About It: Audio Description as Ethical Participatory Creative Practice

A collaboration between University of Gloucestershire, University of Oxford, The Wilson Gallery, Everyman Theatre and Insight Gloucestershire. Audio description (AD) is a narration providing verbal explanation of visual media for blind and partially sighted (BPS) audiences. Current AD provision within the commercial and charity sectors is limited by preconceived industry practice and notions of ableist frameworks. This project investigates the ethics of participatory processes in relationship to creative practice (writing, photography, filmmaking) and the creation, production and delivery of AD. Currently AD provision is predominantly created as an add-on once the original artwork is created and is seen as an 'objective' accessibility tool. This project proposes to examine AD as a creative, transformative, interpretive act. Therefore it is a space to delineate a creative practice but also to question who has access to that creativity and who may speak through it. The project is a collaboration between sighted and non-sighted practitioners resulting in the following outputs: original creative writing; original designed soundscape; original photographs; exhibition which invites gallery visitors to continue the investigation of AD as a creative, interpretative practice. The exhibition will advance John Hull's idea that "to gain our full humanity, blind people and sighted people need to see each other". Tell Me About It provides best practice examples and a tool kit for audio describers, filmmakers, gallerists, curators and researchers in the field of integrated diversity practice. By engaging the end user in the original creative practice, this project continues Rocco's research into user-generated content and questions how wellbeing for BPS participants via increased agency can benefit this diverse, marginalised group by participating in this new, creative AD practice