Audio Description for Sighted Viewers in Qatar: A Reception Study

The aim of this research is to shed light on the importance of audio description (AD) for all in the Arab world. Thirty sighted university students in Qatar volunteered to take part in a reception test which was carried out to explore the sighted viewers’ reception when watching the Arabic transadapted version of a new Spanish short film called Tiempo de Blues with AD. To assess the sighted viewers’ performance in terms of comprehension and enjoyment of the film, a semi-structured questionnaire was distributed to the participants immediately after the screening. After analysing the data both qualitatively and quantitatively, the results showed that the comprehension rates, as well as the enjoyment rates for the experimental group who watched the film with AD, were higher than those of the control group who watched the film without AD. It should also be emphasized that AD acted as an exogenous attention control for the participants as it urged them to concentrate on the details in the visuals on the film, which may have gone unnoticed without these descriptions. The participants also expressed their interest in repeating the experience of watching an audio described film. An additional and unexpected outcome of the study was that the results illuminated the potential benefits of involving sighted viewers in the AD script writing process, as their responses shed light upon some previously unnoticed considerations. This study can be considered an initial step, and can be built upon with further reception studies for sighted viewers. By doing so, the important role of AD for all in the Arab world will become evident as the blind and visually impaired as well as the sighted viewers will have greater opportunities to watch audio described films.