Routledge Handbook of Audio Description

The American Council of the Blind (ACB) Recipient of the 2022 Dr. Margaret Pfanstiehl Audio Description Achievement Award for Research and Development

This Handbook provides a comprehensive overview of the expanding field of audio description, the practice of rendering the visual elements of a multimodal product such as a film, painting, or live performance in the spoken mode, for the benefit principally of the blind and visually impaired community. This volume brings together scholars, researchers, practitioners and service providers, such as broadcasters from all over the world, to cover as thoroughly as possible all the theoretical and practical aspects of this discipline.

In 38 chapters, the expert authors chart how the discipline has become established both as an important professional service and as a valid academic subject, how it has evolved and how it has come to play such an important role in media accessibility. From the early history of the subject through to the challenges represented by ever-changing technology, the Handbook covers the approaches and methodologies adopted to analyse the “multimodal” text in the constant search for the optimum selection of the elements to describe.

This is the essential guide and companion for advanced students, researchers and audio description professionals within the more general spheres of translation studies and media accessibility.

Christopher Taylor is Full Professor (retired) of English Language and Translation at the University of Trieste, Italy. He is author of Language to Language (CUP, 2000) and more than eighty articles on general translation, audiovisual translation and audio description.

Elisa Perego is Associate Professor of English Language and Translation at the University of Trieste, Italy. She is author of Accessible communication: A cross-country journey, and numerous articles on audiovisual translation, audio description, and language simplification.