Text-to-speech audio description of voiced-over films. A case study of audio described Volver in Polish

Abstract

Given that the production (esp. recording) of AD is quite costly, there are not very many audio described films available on the Polish market. Moreover, there is practically no audio description to foreign films in Poland since it has been assumed that blind and partially sighted audiences will not manage to assimilate multiple soundtracks (original soundtrack in foreign language, voiceover and audio description). In order to overcome the cost hurdle, we propose text-to-speech audio description (TTS AD) as a cheaper alternative to traditionally produced AD. We will demonstrate how TTS AD can be combined with voice-over to produce AD to foreign films on the example of Volver by Pedro Almodovar. We will also present the results of a survey conducted among a group of blind and partially sighted audience after a screening of voiced-over Volver with TTS AD. The results of the survey demonstrate that the participants are quite open to the idea of TTS AD both as an interim solution – until there are more audio described films available – and as a permanent solution.