Enhancing the entertainment experience of blind and low‐vision theatregoers through touch tours

Udo, John-Patrick; Fels, Deborah I.

doi:10.1080/09687590903537497

Cited by 25 publications

(13 citation statements)

References 18 publications

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“…Three open-ended questions asked participants to reflect on their entertainment experience with the AD for all eight episodes of the show. The questionnaires were based on ones developed for research on AD and used in five other studies [36, 37, 38, 39, 40] providing a measure of external validity. The between episode questionnaire used only the AD quality measures from the previous questionnaires.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Impacts on quality: Enjoyment factors in blind and low vision audience entertainment ratings: A qualitative study

Naraine¹,

Fels

Whitfield

2018

PLoS ONE

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Audio description (AD) is one of the main methods that people who are blind or low vision (B/LV) use to access film, television, and theatre content. AD is a second audio track inserted into the space(s) where speech is absent, which tends to be only a few seconds. Contained in that second track is an audio description of the important visual information contained within a specific scene. However, as there is insufficient time to describe all visual information, decisions about what is important to describe and how to present that information (style) to optimize a B/LV viewer’s entertainment experience are required. Most research to date has considered only short-term, single-episode experiences to gauge viewers’ reactions to the AD content. In addition, this research typically has used a monotone, single style of audio description, which is defined as “the conventional style” in this paper. We use an integrative style instead, that is defined as ‘AD designed to fit a specific show”, and differed between shows. We carried out a within-subjects longitudinal study with eight episodes of a dark comedy, using different description styles and describers in order to assess viewer engagement and preferences for AD describer style, language use, timing, and fit to the show. Twenty-four blind participants viewed and rated all eight episodes. Major findings included that most participants found the integrative style entertaining, a fit with the specific episodes, and enjoyable. Some participants, however, preferred the conventional style and struggled with the language and topic of a dark comedy and its associated descriptions.

show abstract

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Impacts on quality: Enjoyment factors in blind and low vision audience entertainment ratings: A qualitative study

Naraine¹,

Fels

Whitfield

2018

PLoS ONE

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show abstract

“…Sensory tours give theatregoers a multi-sensory experience of a play and are intended to provide alternative access to some of the inaccessible or partially accessible visual stimuli that could be directly experienced using other senses (Mitroo, Herman, and Badler, 1979;Karam, Russo, Branje, Price, and Fels, 2008;Udo and Fels, 2010b). Touch, scent and sound can extend, enable and provide alternative experiences for some of the production components that are not described in the show itself (e.g., sets, props, costumes and musical instruments) (Udo and Fels, 2010a).…”

Section: Sensory Tourmentioning

confidence: 99%

Inclusive Design, Audio Description, and Diversity of Theatre Experiences

Whitfield,

Fels

2023

Preprint

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show abstract

“…In addition to the audio description provided during the performance, some theater productions offer "touch tours" that take place before the performance for audience members with (or without) visual impairment (Udo and Fels, 2010b). The participants have the opportunity to enter the stage area, touch objects, props and costumes.…”

Section: Dance Performance Made Tangiblementioning

confidence: 99%

Dance Is More Than Meets the Eye—How Can Dance Performance Be Made Accessible for a Non-sighted Audience?

Bläsing

Zimmermann

2021

Front. Psychol.

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Dance is regarded as visual art form by common arts and science perspectives. Definitions of dance as means of communication agree that its message is conveyed by the dancer/choreographer via the human body for the observer, leaving no doubt that dance is performed to be watched. Brain activation elicited by the visual perception of dance has also become a topic of interest in cognitive neuroscience, with regards to action observation in the context of learning, expertise and aesthetics. The view that the aesthetic experience of dance is primarily a visual one is still shared by many artists and cultural institutions, yet there is growing interest in making dance performances accessible for individuals with visual impairment / blindness. Means of supporting the non-visual experience of dance include verbal (audio description), auditive (choreographed body sounds, movement sonification), and haptic (touch tour) techniques, applied for different purposes by artists and researchers, with three main objectives: to strengthen the cultural participation of a non-sighted audience in the cultural and aesthetic experience of dance; to expand the scope of dance as an artistic research laboratory toward novel ways of perceiving what dance can convey; and to inspire new lines of (neuro-cognitive) research beyond watching dance. Reviewing literature from different disciplines and drawing on the personal experience of an inclusive performance of Simon Mayer's “Sons of Sissy,” we argue that a non-exclusively visual approach can be enriching and promising for all three perspectives and conclude by proposing hypotheses for multidisciplinary lines of research.

show abstract

Enhancing the entertainment experience of blind and low‐vision theatregoers through touch tours

Cited by 25 publications

References 18 publications

Impacts on quality: Enjoyment factors in blind and low vision audience entertainment ratings: A qualitative study

Impacts on quality: Enjoyment factors in blind and low vision audience entertainment ratings: A qualitative study

Inclusive Design, Audio Description, and Diversity of Theatre Experiences

Dance Is More Than Meets the Eye—How Can Dance Performance Be Made Accessible for a Non-sighted Audience?

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