Extended Audio Description

What is Audio Description?

Audio description gives a spoken description of the detail and imagery in a video to make content accessible to individuals who have a vision impairment. By providing these viewers with a similar experience to a sighted viewer, you make your content accessible to a wider audience.

When do you use it?

As a general guideline, audio description should be used when there is information portrayed visually that's required for understanding. For instance, on-screen text, facial expressions, costumes, and scene changes all give context that help us better understand and enjoy content. If these elements are not audibly described, a viewer who can't see very well might have trouble ingesting the content.

While this guideline may sound simple, the specific needs for description vary case by case. For example, a movie trailer with little dialogue will have plenty of room for descriptions, while an advanced physics lecture with heavy dialogue may not have enough natural pauses to effectively describe what’s happening on-screen. Luckily, the Kaltura Player supports two types of audio description services to help you decide what type is best for your content:

1. Standard Audio Description - Standard Audio Description is when the snippets of description are inserted into the natural pauses of the content being described. The description is spoken by a human voice. It's suitable for videos that have long pauses in dialogue or that don't contain speech at all. For more information, visit our article Standard Audio Description.

2. Extended Audio Description - Extended Audio Description is a service that pauses the video to allow for longer descriptions when there's not enough space to sufficiently describe the visuals in your video. It's suitable for videos that have few natural pauses, but contain a lot of visual content, making it tricky to describe without interrupting the original audio. In these cases, an Extended Audio Description is necessary. 

Unlike Standard Audio Description, Extended Audio Description isn't restricted to the natural pauses of a video but rather allows you to pause the original content to make room for description as needed.

When a user presses play, the video begins playing and then pauses temporarily allowing for audio description. After that portion of the description is complete, the video resumes playing. This happens several times throughout the video. 

Extended Audio Description uses Speech Synthesis to synthesize sound from a time coded VTT file.

The video below features Extended Audio Description.  

Order Audio Description per entry

1. From the user menuselect My Media.
2. On the My Media page, click a media entry. The media entry displays.
3. From the Actions drop-down menu select +Caption & Enrich.
   The Captions and Enrichment Services Requests screen is displayed.
   
   The screen is divided into two sections:
   Existing Requests – Here you'll see a list of existing captions and enrichment requests and the status of each.
   If there are no existing requests, the following message is displayed: 'No requests were found'.
   Order Captions & Enrichment Services – This is where you'll order services.
   
4. Select the Unit – only in case different Reach profiles (budgets) are configured for each unit in your account. The selected unit will be charged for the captions request.
5. Choose Professional as the Service. (Note: Extended audio Description is supported for professional service only and must be enabled by your system administrator.)
6. Select English from the drop-down menu. (Note: This service is only available in English)
7. Select Extended Audio Description from the Feature drop down.
8. Select the Turnaround Time (TAT) from the drop-down menu. The TAT options are set by your administrator.
9. Click Submit. 

A success message displays: 'Your request has been received. Your video will automatically be updated upon completion'.

The request will be shown on the request list.

If there is an identical request for an audio description service, the system will display an error message: 'Service was already requested for this video'.

If there is insufficient credit to order this service, the system will display an error message: 'The request cannot be fulfilled. Your account credit is depleted. Please contact your administrator'.

You can follow the order status by viewing the status in the Existing Requests screen. If your requests require approval, the request status will be “Pending approval” until the requests are approved. 

The audio description will be uploaded when completed, and you'll receive a message that your request has been received.

Ordering Audio Description for multiple entries

1. Go to My Media page.
2. Select the media you want to order captions for by checking the checkbox next to each media.
3. Select Request Captions & Enrich. The Captions & Enrich screen is displayed.
   
   
4. Follow steps 4-9 above.

User experience

Users can enable Advanced Audio Description on the Kaltura V7 player by clicking the Advanced Audio description toggle to turn it on.