by Peggy Carpenter
As summer winds down and we begin to think about fall, I want to share what a special experience I found viewing the Olympics with audio description.
As a kid with some usable vision, I always enjoyed watching the Olympics. There was something special about the events either in the pool or on the track, when one could view the participants racing for the finish line. It was so exciting to see whether the participant in front would go all the way or whether there would be a sudden come-from-behind victory. As I lost most of my usable vision, I still enjoyed the Olympics and found that the commentators did a fairly good job keeping me posted about what was going on. There was still lots of excitement in many of those close races!
This year, for the first time, I enjoyed the Olympics with audio description. I know it existed for a couple other Olympics, but for some reason I was not able to watch it. I realized what a true enhancement audio description gave to me over just the commentators’ descriptions. This began with the opening ceremony, where the describer talked about everything from the boats going down the Seine in Paris to describing Celine Dion’s dress as she sang.
My enjoyment of the events continued with wonderful descriptions of gymnastics, including the USA team and fabulous accomplishments by Simone Biles and the other gymnasts. Next, I enjoyed all the events in the pool; the audio description included descriptions of the bathing suits and how far ahead some of the winners were as the races ended. Track and field events are always such a highlight of the summer games. I was fascinated by the audio description talking about the assorted colors of the sneakers and necklaces worn by many of the participants, things that are not covered by the commentators. After more than two weeks, the closing ceremony took place, and it was so cool to hear what was going on in some of the entertaining moments.
For most of us, experiencing audio description has generally been done with movies or television shows which are scripted and where the audio description is carefully fit into gaps in dialogue to make a smooth presentation. Obviously, this is not possible in audio describing real-time events. At times, the audio describers and commentators conflicted, and it was difficult to sort out. However, this was a minor distraction in what was a totally inclusive experience. It was wonderful to be able to talk about events with others and feel a part of discussions of things not covered by normal commentary such as descriptions of the venues, clothing, and reactions by the winners and non-winners. It was great to be able to discuss these events with sighted people.
I really want to give kudos to Comcast and NBCUniversal and all their describers. It was clear that many of the describers were familiar with the events they were describing and could keep up by describing the actions taking place. This was particularly obvious in the description of gymnastic moves, where the describers clearly knew the terms for many of the maneuvers executed by the athletes. They did an excellent job describing those close races and the nearly simultaneous finishes in many of the events. It was also great fun to hear the little details which I would not have normally known, such as so many of the athletes wearing bright orange sneakers!
Many thanks to Comcast and NBCUniversal for providing this service, which could not have been an easy one to do. Audio description of live events could be extremely difficult. I also want to thank ACB for all their advocacy in the arena of audio description and hope that this will serve as a great example of how it can be done! I’m looking forward to the audio description of the Paralympics!