What is This Partnership All About?
The DCMP has partnered with the American Foundation for the Blind (AFB), a national nonprofit organization that expands possibilities for people with vision loss, to develop guidelines for the description of educational media. This project, the first-ever in the U.S. to specifically address guidelines for the description of educational media, seeks to provide service providers and media producers with a framework for consistency and quality for K–12 students who are blind, visually impaired, or deaf-blind.
What is Description and Why is it Needed?
An example of how description works. The pale yellow word balloon represents the program's narration, and the white word balloon represents the description. In this example, the narration is given, followed by the description of the visual content.
Description is the verbal depiction of key visual elements in a television program, video, DVD, or other multimedia presentation. Inserted into natural pauses in the program's soundtrack, description provides information that otherwise would remain inaccessible to someone who is blind or visually impaired without the assistance of a sighted person. It is similar to captions in that both are important tools for equal access to educational media for people with disabilities. While captioning has enjoyed almost five decades of development and successful implementation, description is still relatively new to the scene. Read more about the history of description in our Clearinghouse article Description Time Line Highlights.
Though a handful of entertainment media is now available with description, less than 1% of the educational media currently used in the classroom is fully accessible to students who are blind and visually impaired. The DCMP is committed to providing—and advocating for—equal access to educational media. For that reason, all new media in our collection will be both captioned and described.
Why are Guidelines for Description Needed?
The DCMP Captioning Key.
In the five decades since the DCMP began (as Captioned Films for the Deaf), the amount of captioned educational materials has grown as has the demand for uniformity and quality. We expect that this market trend will repeat for described media, as awareness of and need for universally accessible educational media grows.
Enter DCMP's Captioning Key, which has established guidelines and best practices for captioning providers, and enjoyed an extremely wide readership and even international distribution. We are confident that the description guidelines will enjoy similar success in improving the quality of accessible educational media.
How are the Guidelines Being Produced?
The AFB is utilizing many professional resources in its work to develop the guidelines. This includes an expert panel of educators of students with visual impairments, describers, video producers, parents of children with visual impairments, school administrators, and adults who are blind or have low vision. AFB will begin to conduct field trials, solicit public commentary, and request specialized feedback from its unique network of educators and professionals in an attempt to resolve issues and clarify any ambiguity. The draft guidelines are now posted on AFB's Description Guidelines page
for public comment. If you are a teacher or other professional involved in
educating students who are blind or visually impaired, please take a few moments
to review and respond to the current draft. You input will ultimately improve
the quality of described educational media for your students as well as students
across the country.
When Will the Guidelines be Available?
The description guidelines will be made available in October of 2008. Visit AFB's Description Guidelines page frequently to keep up-to-date with the progress of the guidelines project, and feel free to e-mail us with your thoughts or suggestions.
Want to Learn More About the AFB?
The American Foundation for the Blind (AFB) is a national nonprofit that, for 87 years, has been expanding possibilities for people with vision loss by setting trends and devising innovative initiatives. AFB's priorities include broadening access to technology, elevating the quality of information and tools for the professionals who serve people with vision loss, and promoting independent and healthy living for people with vision loss by providing them and their families with relevant and timely resources. AFB's work in these areas is supported by the strong presence the organization maintains in Washington, D.C., ensuring the rights and interests of people with vision loss are represented in our nation's public policies.
In addition to its New York City headquarters and Public Policy Center in Washington, D.C., AFB maintains offices in Atlanta; at the Center on Vision Loss in Dallas, TX; in Huntington, WV; and in San Francisco, CA. AFB is also proud to house the Helen Keller Archives and honor the over forty years that Helen Keller worked tirelessly with the AFB to expand possibilities for people with vision loss.
Visit afb.org to learn more about the AFB.