Death Comes to Town, Irreverent Humour, and Accessibility for the Blind and Low-Visioned

Abstract

This article focuses on described video (DV), which makes television accessible to persons who are blind or who have low vision by providing voice-over descriptions of shows. The article highlights the lack of DV content in Canada and outlines the factors inhibiting more DV production, including policy, the commercial and organizational structure of television, and the established conventions that were developed for certain genres (e.g., documentary and drama). It uses the described version of the recent CBC mini-series Death Comes to Town, created by the comedy troupe Kids in the Hall, to illustrate how different genres of television, such as comedy, require unconventional styles of description to convey their full cultural meaning. Finally, it argues that true accessibility and participation in national media culture for people who are blind or have low vision, as mandated in Canadian and international law, depend on adequate DV.RÉSUMÉ Cet article porte sur l’audiodescription, service qui rend la télévision accessible aux aveugles et aux malvoyants en leur fournissant une description en voix off de ce qu’ils sont en train de regarder. Cet article souligne le manque de contenu audiodescriptif au Canada et indique les facteurs empêchant une production audiodescriptive accrue, y compris certaines politiques, la structure commerciale et organisationnelle de la télévision, et les conventions établies pour certains genres (par exemple, le documentaire et la télésérie dramatique). L’article porte une attention particulière à l’audiodescription utilisée pour la minisérie canadienne Death Comes to Town (« La Mort arrive en ville »), créée par la troupe comique Kids in the Hall, afin d’illustrer comment des types d’émission différents comme les comédies requièrent des descriptions inhabituelles pour que leur sens soit pleinement communiqué. Enfin, l’article soutient que l’accès à un service audiodescriptif adéquat est essentiel pour faire en sorte que les aveugles et les malvoyants participent à la culture médiatique nationale conformément aux lois canadiennes et internationales.

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

“…In episode 6, narrated by SC, three participants had similar comments: “description style is quite annoying,” and “Editorial comments really take away from my enjoyment of the description.” There were also negative comments for other episodes that were similar but not as frequent. The findings support the literature which affirms that B/LV viewers who were familiar with conventional styles of AD were less likely to prefer alternative styles of AD [7, 8, 18].…”

“…From the negative perspective of AD Style, a few participants’ expressions of dislike with the hybrid (integrative) style indicating that their expectation of AD is that it sounds factual, and similar to the newsreader style as affirmed in the literature [1, 2, 7, 18]. They do not seem to regard AD as an art form and a form of entertainment.…”

“…This impact extends not only to digital technological competence but also, as outlined in Alper’s [17] paper, important lifelong metacognitive skills for critical thinking, such as play, performance, appropriation, judgment, negotiation, and visualization. Further research is needed in understanding media competency in B/LV adults, as well as how B/LV adults perceive subversive and emotional content designed to disrupt social norms [18, 19, 20].…”

“Swept to the sidelines and forgotten“: Cultural Exclusion, Blind Persons’ Participation, and International Film Festivals

“…This production also used a novel (and we argued, more inclusive) approach to audio description: namely, the use of narration that maintained the humourous flavour of the script. However, the analysis highlighted the lack of audio description in Canada and outlined the factors inhibiting audio description production, including policy, the commercial and organizational structure of television, and established genre conventions (Aspevig and Pedersen 2011).…”

“…Finally, in a third case study, we dealt with the importance of including blind persons as characters and filmmakers in the medium of cinema in the pursuit to make film culture, not only film, accessible (Pedersen and Aspevig 2011). We used the documentary film Antoine (2009) because it extended a voice to a blind boy to tell his life story through his own yarns, reminiscences, and imaginative arrangements.…”