A catchy video campaign to promote a career in the sciences has been made accessible to students who are blind or have low vision with the help of the Vision Australia.
The ‘Future You’ campaign helps students understand what a career in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) could look like and features a range of people, including a non-binary character and one with a hearing aid.
Thanks to Vision Australia, the campaign’s video material also includes audio description.
Vision Australia national coordinator audio description Michael Ward said making the campaign accessible to students who are blind or have low vision came with its own complexities.
“The strength of the message is clearly from the incredibly catchy song which exudes so much positivity towards ambition and diversity,” he said.
“With the audio description we wanted to walk a fine line to allow the song to tell the story while injecting imagery in a succinct and meaningful fashion.”
Audio description provides an explanation of what is happening visually by weaving in between dialogue.
Good audio description seamlessly adds an additional narration that succinctly describes movements, gestures, transitions, props, settings, costumes and scenery.
It is most commonly found accompanying television shows and films, but the audio description department at Vision Australia describes everything from plays, museums, exhibitions and other arts-related productions.
Audio description allows people who are blind or have low vision, as well as those with learning disabilities, to understand and appreciate what is happening on-screen alongside the wider population.
Vision Australia has been providing audio description services for 30 years across the entire arts and entertainment industry.
Most recently it supplied audio descriptions for the streaming service Stan and can be utilised by any organisation wanting to make their content more accessible.
You can find out more about Vision Australia’s audio description service online or email [email protected] for more information.