Writing AD for Museums -- Things to Consider
This page is about writing audio description for museum exhibitions and websites. Another section of this site is about Writing Audio Description for Historic and Cultural Sites. Writing Audio Description is an art and a craft The craft -- techniques you can learn to use, including how to write language for the ear. The art -- evoking meaning and feeling by conveying with words what you see, plus also artistic style and visual elements. For many years, museums and advocates for blind visitors argued that if a museum had a Classic audio tour for its sighted audience, then it needed a separate Audio Description tour. Museums still successfully produce such tours. But in recent years, some museums and organizations, like Art Beyond Sight advocate considering Inclusive tours that work successfully for both sighted and blind audiences. More on this later. The term Classic refers to traditional audio tours taken by sighted visitors, filled with context and background to a work or object. Audio Descriptive tours are for visitors with vision loss and primarily focus on describing what a person with vision loss cannot see. Inclusive tours combine these two ideas, balancing descriptive language with curatorial and historical context to create a tour for both sighted visitors and those with vision loss. How Long is Too Long? A common question I receive from museum staff is -- how long should the stops be in a tour with audio description? To answer that question you must consider: - the length of traditional audio tour stops - how and where people will hear your audio tour - the nature of your audience. Classic Tours Companies that produce audio tours for sighted visitors try to keep their stops to around ninety seconds, and rarely go over two minutes. Of course, these stops do not include audio description. So a stop that includes audio description will be longer, but not necessarily dramatically longer, like this audio description I wrote for a painting in the New-York Historical Society's "Armory Show at 100." The stops ranged from two-and-a-half to three-and-a-half minutes long and the scripts wove art historical context for each work with the audio description. Listen below to the audio description for a painting by John Sloan titled Sunday Morning, Women Drying Their Hair. It's two minutes and forty-five seconds long. Here is a transcript of the audio In-Museum Tours
n a museum, people may easily spend an hour standing and walking through an exhibition. So physical fatigue is a factor. Boredom can also be a factor. Put yourself in the shoes of a visitor and ask how long you would feel comfortable and stay interested while standing in one location. It’s subjective, but it's a factor to consider. Virtual/Web tours A museum's web site may feature a selection of works from its permanent collection as a sort of virtual museum tour. These stops can be longer than in-museum tour stops. Visitors will listen to audio descriptions at their leisure, probably sitting down. So they will be more inclined to listen to longer stops. I took this into account when writing audio description for the Art Beyond Sight websites, New York Beyond Sight and American Art. |
NYBS had prominent New Yorkers reading audio descriptions of the city’s visual culture, including architecture and public art works. The “stops” on this site ranged from 3 ½ to 6 minutes long, with most in the 4 - 5 minute range. You can listen to an example below, an audio description of the Empire State Building. It's 5 minutes long. There is a transcript of the audio here. There is more about New York Beyond Sight in this site's section titled Writing Audio Description for Historic and Cultural Sites. ********* |
American Art featured 8 artworks from the Whitney Museum of American Art and 8 from the Brooklyn Museum. The audio description recordings ranged from 3 to 6 minutes, with most in the 4-5 minute range. The goal of these descriptions was to integrate a rich use of sound with the description. You can listen to an example below, an audio description of Louisiana Rice Fields by Thomas Hart Benton. It's 4 and a half minutes long. There is a transcript of the audio here. ********** |
Know Your Audience. Your museum can probably can identify people who are blind or have low vision and who visit frequently. They may desire longer, more detailed audio description than casual museum visitors. So, for both in-museum and virtual online tours, know your audience and write accordingly. If your goal is to satisfy a mixed audience, the challenge is to find a happy length that will satisfy both.
Alert Your Listeners. I’ve found that listeners appreciate knowing how long audio stops will be. You can add a line in the tour introduction so listeners know how long they can expect to stand in one place while listening.
**********
Alert Your Listeners. I’ve found that listeners appreciate knowing how long audio stops will be. You can add a line in the tour introduction so listeners know how long they can expect to stand in one place while listening.
**********