IDEA: Inclusive Description for Equality and Access

许多剧院使用音频介绍，为盲人和部分失明的剧院观众提供关于戏剧背景、服装、道具和角色的基本信息。尽管音频介绍对观众的理解、参与和享受有明显的好处，但电影和电视制作人目前还不提供音频介绍，尽管人们对添加音频介绍的兴趣刚刚萌芽。该奖学金将使戏剧专业人员、音频描述员和BPS人员参与创建和促进包容性音频介绍，以庆祝演员的多样性。在音频介绍中，提到演员或角色的受保护特征，如种族、性别、性取向、残疾和年龄，并不总是以包容和公平的方式进行。描述者要么通过避免提及某些特征来抹去多样性的标记，以免说错话，要么无意中使用了负载或负面的语言来描述这些特征。在这两种情况下，当舞台上的人被抹去或受到不公平对待时，通过提供音频描述而实现的将残疾人纳入观众的努力受到破坏。包容性音频介绍，特别是在与演员和创作团队协商后创建的音频介绍，是改善观众和剧团成员的可及性、多样性和包容性的一种手段。该研究金将传播《描述多样性：在剧院音频描述实践中对人类特征的描述的探索》报告的结果，该报告由皇家霍洛威和VoalEyes于2020年9月出版。该报告的调查结果解决了目前缺乏包容性音频介绍的问题，为音频描述员和剧院专业人员提出了一套关于包容性音频描述最佳做法的12项建议。这些建议旨在促进被描述的人(演员及其角色)和聆听描述的人(包括但不限于BPS剧院观众)的平等、多样性和包容性。该研究金将通过以下方式促进、支持和鼓励这些建议的实施：举办讲习班方案，共同为10部作品制作音频介绍，选择其中包括一系列受保护的特点；开展活动，让不同的剧院观众了解包容性音频介绍的好处；开发培训材料和资源，说明音频介绍在剧院内外的价值。研究金将支持并使剧院专业人员和音频描述者参与和探索研究结果，以促进以可获得的方式颂扬多样性的包容性描述的创作。我们将与来自5个制作剧院的选角导演、演员、通道专业人员、前台团队和制片人合作，向剧院专业人员和观众推广包容性音频介绍的好处。我们将使音频描述人员能够与剧院专业人员合作创作包容性音频介绍，我们将通过协商共同创作过程，让BPS剧院观众和作品中所描绘的社区成员参与进来。该奖学金旨在促进包容性音频介绍作为平等和多样性的传播者和推动者的价值。作为促进包容性音频描述的一部分，该研究金还将寻求增加音频描述员、BPS剧院观众和剧院专业人员的多样性，方法是让代表不足的群体参与创作和接受包容性音频描述。通过在MOOC项目中展示包容性音频介绍的好处，该奖学金还将鼓励更广泛的创意行业，特别是电影和电视公司，在其准入条款中增加音频介绍。

Audio Introductions are used by many theatres to provide blind and partially sighted theatre goers with essential information about a play's setting, costumes, props and characters. Despite their obvious benefits for audience comprehension, engagement and enjoyment, audio introductions are not currently provided by film and television makers although there is nascent interest in adding them. The fellowship will engage theatre professionals, audio describers and BPS people with the creation and promotion of inclusive audio introductions which celebrate actors' diversity. References to actors' or characters' protected characteristics such as race, gender, sexuality, disability and age are not always made in inclusive and equitable ways in audio introductions. Either describers erase markers of diversity by avoiding mention of certain characteristics for fear of 'saying the wrong thing', or they inadvertently use loaded or negative language to describe them. In both cases, the improved inclusion of disabled people in the audience achieved through the provision of audio description is undermined when people on stage are either erased or treated unfairly. Inclusive audio introductions, particularly those created after consultation with actors and the creative team, are a means of improving accessibility, diversity and inclusion for both audience members and members of the theatre company. The Fellowship will disseminate the findings of the report Describing Diversity: An Exploration of the Description of Human Characteristics Within the Practice of Theatre Audio Description which was published by Royal Holloway and VocalEyes in September 2020. The report's findings address the current lack of inclusive audio introductions by presenting a set of 12 recommendations about best practice in inclusive audio description for both audio describers and theatre professionals. These recommendations are designed to promote equality, diversity and inclusion both for people being described (actors and their characters) and for people listening to the descriptions (including but not limited to BPS theatre goers). The fellowship will enable, support and encourage the implementation of these recommendations through a programme of workshops to co-create audio introductions for 10 productions, chosen to include a wide range of protected characteristics; activities to engage diverse theatre audiences with the benefits of inclusive audio description; and the development of training materials and resources about the value of audio introductions both in and beyond theatrical settings. The fellowship will support and enable theatre professionals and audio describers to engage with and explore the research findings in order to promote the creation of inclusive descriptions which celebrate diversity in accessible ways. We will work with casting directors, actors, access professionals, front-of-house teams and producers from 5 producing theatres to promote the benefits of inclusive audio introductions for theatre professionals and audience members. We will enable audio describers to work with theatre professionals on the creation of inclusive audio introductions and we will involve BPS theatre goers and members of the communities depicted in the productions through a process of consultative co-creation. The fellowship aims to promote the value of the inclusive audio introduction as both a communicator and a driver of equality and diversity. As part of its promotion of inclusive audio description, the fellowship will also seek to increase the diversity of audio describers, BPS theatre goers and theatre professionals by engaging under-represented groups with the creation and reception of inclusive audio description. By showcasing the benefits of inclusive audio introductions in the project MOOC, the fellowship will also encourage the wider creative industries, particularly film and television companies, to add audio introductions to their access provision.