Aspects of Visual Content Covered in the Audio Description of Arabic Series: A Corpus-assisted Study

Abstract

People with visual impairment need a special form of audio-visual translation (AVT) to have access to multimedia products such as series and movies. Audio description (AD) is an AVT mode that describes what is happening in the images through words. It is a necessary accessibility tool that allows the blind and visually impaired to visualize scenes through spoken material. This study examines the types of information covered in the AD of the Jordanian Netflix drama series ‘Madrast Al-Rawabi LilBanat’ (AlRawabi School for Girls) following a corpus-assisted approach. Subsequent to watching the series and transcribing the verbal AD content, the researchers conducted frequency and concordance (KWIC) analyses using the Wordsmith 6 (WS6) software package to identify the categories of information covered in the AD. The findings showed six categories, namely description of characters, description of actions, interpersonal interactions, description of settings, emotional states, and on-screen texts. This study recommends conducting further research on AD in the Arab world to expand the accessibility services provided by official TV channels and streaming platforms.