ACB's Audio Description Project
Sixteenth Audio Description Institute
February 22 - 24, 2020 - (Saturday through Monday)
In Conjunction with ACB's 2020 DC Leadership Meeting
Holiday Inn & Suites Alexandria (Virginia)
Alexandria, VA 22314
(703) 548-6300
Audio Description (AD) makes visual images accessible for people who are blind or are visually impaired. Using words that are succinct, vivid, and imaginative, media describers convey the visual image from television and film that is not fully accessible to a significant segment of the population (more than 21 million Americans experience significant vision loss).
The implementation of the 21st Century Communications and Video Accessibility Act has spawned a virtual cottage industry for the development of description for broadcast television.
Register by visiting: http://weblink.donorperfect.com/Feb_2020_ADP_Registration
The Institute includes:
- Three full days of intensive, interactive training;
- A Monday luncheon will be provided;
- Each registrant will receive a signed copy of Dr. Joel Snyder's ACB-published The Visual Made Verbal: A Comprehensive Training Manual and Guide to the History and Applications of Audio Description.
The interactive sessions (limited use of lecture, questions/discussion throughout, generous use of media, and individual and group writing exercises) are designed to provide immediate feedback and "give and take," allowing for adaptation according to a sense of participants' grasp of the material. In addition, experienced users of description are a part of the Institute's faculty, providing an important perspective throughout the sessions.
Link to agenda: https://acb.org/2020-ADP-Institute-Agenda
Institute topics include:
- Audio description history and theory
- The "Four Fundamentals of Audio Description" ©
- Active seeing/visual literacy-developing skills in concentration and observation
- The art of "editing" what you see
- Vivid language: "The Visual Made Verbal"™
- "Speak the speech, I pray you"-using the spoken word to make meaning
This should interest you if you are:
- working as freelance description writers for broadcast television
- working as a describer in a local performing arts program
- working as a describer for visual art exhibitions
- Experienced audio describers desiring an updated refresher course.
NOTE: freelance writers for broadcast television projects can often be based anywhere in the world--computer equipment capable of accommodating high-speed downloads is a must.
Participation is strictly limited. The Institute will issue ACB-sponsored certificates to all successful participants confirming completion of this professional description training program.
Institute Director
Joel Snyder, Ph.D.-- One of the first audio describers, Dr. Snyder began describing theater events and media in 1981; he is the President of Audio Description Associates, LLC with clients around the world (see www.audiodescribe.com for more information) and Director of ACB's Audio Description Project. For six years, he led a staff that produced description for nationally broadcast films and network series including ”Sesame Street" broadcasts and DVDs. Snyder has worked with description and trained describers in more than 40 states and the District of Columbia and he has taught description in over 60 countries.
Institute Assistant
Joyce Adams—Joyce has been producing/writing AD scripts for media and museum tours since 2002. She supervised AD script writers for the Described Media program at the National Captioning Institute, is the author of audio described tours for National Park Service visitor centers throughout the U.S. and regularly pens description for promotional videos produced by Microsoft.