Audio description as a starting point for a multisensory experience of history and art – project “Images without barriers”

Abstract

Purpose of research. The aim of the study is to show the didactic nature of audio description, i.e. its use as a didactic means in learning the blind and visually impaired youth. Audio description is in this context understood as a service and an element that supports learning and reality experience.

Methodology. After a theoretical introduction to research on teaching of audio description (Zabrocka 2014, Paplińska 2016) and its emotionalism (Künstler 2014), the didactic potential of audio description is discussed on the example of the project "Images without barriers" organized for blind and visually impaired students. The aim of the project was to make museum and art exhibits accessible to blind recipients. The youth listened to this purpose emotionally colored audio description and learned in a multisensory way – through different sensory channels (hearing, touch, smell).

Results. The classes, workshops and visits to the museums conducted as part of the project “Images without barriers” showed that thought-out and targeting blind students to multi-annual learning about exhibits and objects audio description is an excellent didactic tool. Young people with special educational needs were constantly interested in the content they were given, and their artistic work done at the end of the project was complex, rich in details and extraordinary, which means that the experiences they collected during the project were equally colorful.

Conclusions. It is worth creating audio descriptions that are involved, thought out and oriented towards the multi-sensuality of experiencing reality. Such audio descriptions should be the basic didactic method in learning blind students.

Keywords: audio description, multisensuality, blind