What is audio description and how can it be used effectively to improve accessibility in the arts?
As the first in a series of blog posts around integrated accessibility in the performing arts, Dr Amy Mallett interviews Jenni Elbourne; a theatre maker, audio-describer, access worker, and consultant around inclusivity and access in the performing arts. In 2013 Jenni founded Unscene Suffolk, a community theatre company for visually impaired people, that she when on to run for 7 years. She was also operational manager for inclusive community theatre company Freewheelers, who create and tour live theatre with performers living with a wide range of disabilities.
Tell us about your Audio Description (AD) work
My AD work has mainly been for quite small and innovative companies; I’ve done very little what I would call ‘mainstream audio describing’, where everyone sits in a theatre with a headset on and it’s very straightforward. I’ve done more work for small companies who have maybe not used AD before, or in settings where it’s not very obvious how practical AD will be. I might work with a company who want to explore integrating AD into their script, or with actors who need the description.
Off-piste projects like these can be driven by practical or financial constraints, but often result in interesting conversations and a much greater awareness of what AD is and how it can be used amongst the whole company. This is something that I really enjoy, and value.
What training have you had in AD, and how important is this?
Although I’ve never done certified AD training, I’ve completed two training courses with Graeae theatre company run by experienced trainers. Graeae have always used visually impaired consultants as part of their process, which has means that there is always a really good level of engagement and reflection within their work. I’ve also learned a lot through working with Louise Fryer, an academic who has written a book about AD. This has given me the confidence that I have a solid level of understanding of what good audio description is.
One of the issues surrounding certified AD training is that it is generally quite prohibitively expensive for individuals to fund, and therefore people tend not to get trained unless they work for a venue who are able to meet the cost. I’ve often worked for small companies who aren’t attached to venues, or with small venues who are not able to justify paying for certified training, and I feel that a lot of the AD work I’ve done just wouldn’t have happened if those training courses were the only ways to access this specialist support.
This is one of the things I am quite passionate about — finding alternative ways to recognise and certify audio description expertise. I’ve recently joined the board of the Audio Description Association (ADA) which is one of the current providers of AD training. As someone who has got this far in a slightly ‘muddling through’ sort of way, I believe doing regular CPD is just as important as trying to go back and certify the training that I’ve already done, given that I’ve been practising for quite a long time. My role on ADA’s board is specifically around providing continuing professional development for audio describers.
Tell me about your experience as an access worker in the performing arts
As an access worker, I’ve worked both in the community to support disabled people who are participating in arts projects, and also assisting professional disabled artists. A lot of this work has been through companies like Graeae and Extant, although I’ve also worked on other projects such as for the National Theatre and the Paralympic opening ceremony which was amazing. In lockdown I’ve been providing technical support for people on Zoom, and helping with things like writing funding bids. In this work I’ve amassed quite a broad picture of all the barriers that people are facing, which is really interesting.
How has your own experience of chronic illness impacted your perspective on accessibility?
Recently I’ve had a first-hand, very visceral experience of becoming disabled myself through a leukaemia diagnosis and going through treatment for that over the last 15–16 months. I was always aware that there is quite a complicated messy area of accessibility around chronic illness, isolation and mental health, but it’s obviously opened that up for me in a very authentic way. I think a lot of those areas are a lot more difficult to tackle, and there are fewer exciting creative solutions to tackle some of the barriers for those people. I think that’s probably the next frontier for companies who have mastered the art of making their work accessible to those we might traditionally think of as disabled audiences.
Particularly as we move out of the pandemic, and more people will be living with ‘long covid’ and other perhaps not so visible health challenges?
Disability is a spectrum, and it’s been quite an interesting experience for me, because prior to being critically unwell, I had suffered for a long time with migraines, which on a bad day would make me think ‘this is actually quite disabling’. Illness and health are also on a spectrum, and I think as someone who understands about what we should be entitled to in terms of the removal of barriers, that’s been quite a tussle for me. I definitely feel like I now have a more legitimate obvious reason to ask for certain things. What’s perhaps more important is that the world is having its eyes opened a bit more to how many people have access needs; are feeling isolated, or suffering long covid effects, and how easy it can be to provide those things when enough people need them.
Remote access is probably the biggest example of something that was rarely provided before, often on the grounds that it was difficult or impractical. Now we all know that it’s not difficult or impractical at all! I definitely feel that there are a lot more opportunities that I can legitimately put myself forward for. At some point I might have to say ‘oh by the way, I’m not coming in’; but I don’t necessarily have to say that at the beginning of the process because that can’t be a surprise to people any more. That’s a really positive thing that will come out of the pandemic for people who are facing similar barriers all the time.
What does the term ‘integrated accessibility’ in the performing arts mean to you?
Within the performing arts, some people might use this term to mean access that is thought about before the point at which the product is finished. Certainly, you hear distinctions made between something that is ‘integrated’ or a ‘bolt-on’, so that might be an important distinction, but I think the conversation is bigger than that. Whether or not something is integrated needs to be one of a longer list of questions about how you are going to make a work accessible.
I would use the term ‘integrated accessibility’ to mean accessible features of performance that are built into the creative fabric of a piece of work; executed in an artistic way and experienced by the whole audience rather than a small target group. An example of this could be a BSL interpreter or audio describer who is a character in the play. Or AD that is shared amongst all the characters within the script.
We should be asking what are creative and effective ways of delivering access, and what is the overlap between the two? We need to think about what is useful to people who are often excluded and simultaneously what’s exciting artistically.