Audio description in video games
Video gaming has become a widely popular form of entertainment globally. However, visually impaired individuals frequently encounter challenges when trying to access most games. Audio description (AD) provides a solution by converting visual elements into spoken words, thus making content accessible...
| Autores: | , |
|---|---|
| Tipo de recurso: | artículo |
| Fecha de publicación: | 2025 |
| País: | España |
| Institución: | Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona |
| Repositorio: | Dipòsit Digital de Documents de la UAB |
| Idioma: | inglés |
| OAI Identifier: | oai:ddd.uab.cat:320353 |
| Acceso en línea: | https://ddd.uab.cat/record/320353 https://dx.doi.org/urn:doi:10.1075/babel.24170.zha |
| Access Level: | acceso abierto |
| Palabra clave: | Accesibilidad Accessibility Audio description Audiodescripción Video game Videojuegos |
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Audio description in video gamesTranslation or creation?Zhang, Xiaochun|||0000-0001-6334-6525Mangiron i Hevia, Carme|||0000-0002-6421-8581AccesibilidadAccessibilityAudio descriptionAudiodescripciónVideo gameVideojuegosVideo gaming has become a widely popular form of entertainment globally. However, visually impaired individuals frequently encounter challenges when trying to access most games. Audio description (AD) provides a solution by converting visual elements into spoken words, thus making content accessible to those with vision loss. While recent studies suggest translating audio description scripts for films and TV as a cost-effective strategy across languages and cultures, audio descriptions for video games remain relatively underexplored. This paper presents the findings of the TransAD4Games project, which examined whether translating audio descriptions from English is more time and cost-efficient than creating audio descriptions from scratch in Spanish, and also explored the differences between the two versions. Focusing on the game Before I Forget (3-Fold Games, 2020), audio descriptions were translated into Spanish by a professional translator, while another describer generated audio descriptions in Spanish from the ground up. Interviews with both the translator and the describer gathered their insights on the process and the challenges encountered. A subsequent comparison of the two versions highlighted the differences. After outlining the current state of audio description in video games and providing a brief review of existing scholarly discussions on the translation of audio description scripts, the research design and principal findings are shared. The study indicates that translating audio descriptions is faster and more cost-effective than creating it from scratch in Spanish, although the originally crafted Spanish audio descriptions offer greater detail. Future research involving a larger corpus would be essential to validate the findings of this study. 22025-01-0120252025-01-01Articlehttp://purl.org/coar/resource_type/c_6501VoRhttp://purl.org/coar/version/c_970fb48d4fbd8a85info:eu-repo/semantics/articleapplication/pdfhttps://ddd.uab.cat/record/320353https://dx.doi.org/urn:doi:10.1075/babel.24170.zhareponame:Dipòsit Digital de Documents de la UABinstname:Universitat Autònoma de BarcelonaInglésengAgència de Gestió d'Ajuts Universitaris i de Recerca https://doi.org/10.13039/501100003030 2021/SGR-00077open accesshttp://purl.org/coar/access_right/c_abf2Aquest document està subjecte a una llicència d'ús Creative Commons. Es permet la reproducció total o parcial, la distribució, la comunicació pública de l'obra i la creació d'obres derivades, fins i tot amb finalitats comercials, sempre i quan es reconegui l'autoria de l'obra original.https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccessoai:ddd.uab.cat:3203532026-06-06T12:50:31Z |
| dc.title.none.fl_str_mv |
Audio description in video games Translation or creation? |
| title |
Audio description in video games |
| spellingShingle |
Audio description in video games Zhang, Xiaochun|||0000-0001-6334-6525 Accesibilidad Accessibility Audio description Audiodescripción Video game Videojuegos |
| title_short |
Audio description in video games |
| title_full |
Audio description in video games |
| title_fullStr |
Audio description in video games |
| title_full_unstemmed |
Audio description in video games |
| title_sort |
Audio description in video games |
| dc.creator.none.fl_str_mv |
Zhang, Xiaochun|||0000-0001-6334-6525 Mangiron i Hevia, Carme|||0000-0002-6421-8581 |
| author |
Zhang, Xiaochun|||0000-0001-6334-6525 |
| author_facet |
Zhang, Xiaochun|||0000-0001-6334-6525 Mangiron i Hevia, Carme|||0000-0002-6421-8581 |
| author_role |
author |
| author2 |
Mangiron i Hevia, Carme|||0000-0002-6421-8581 |
| author2_role |
author |
| dc.subject.none.fl_str_mv |
Accesibilidad Accessibility Audio description Audiodescripción Video game Videojuegos |
| topic |
Accesibilidad Accessibility Audio description Audiodescripción Video game Videojuegos |
| description |
Video gaming has become a widely popular form of entertainment globally. However, visually impaired individuals frequently encounter challenges when trying to access most games. Audio description (AD) provides a solution by converting visual elements into spoken words, thus making content accessible to those with vision loss. While recent studies suggest translating audio description scripts for films and TV as a cost-effective strategy across languages and cultures, audio descriptions for video games remain relatively underexplored. This paper presents the findings of the TransAD4Games project, which examined whether translating audio descriptions from English is more time and cost-efficient than creating audio descriptions from scratch in Spanish, and also explored the differences between the two versions. Focusing on the game Before I Forget (3-Fold Games, 2020), audio descriptions were translated into Spanish by a professional translator, while another describer generated audio descriptions in Spanish from the ground up. Interviews with both the translator and the describer gathered their insights on the process and the challenges encountered. A subsequent comparison of the two versions highlighted the differences. After outlining the current state of audio description in video games and providing a brief review of existing scholarly discussions on the translation of audio description scripts, the research design and principal findings are shared. The study indicates that translating audio descriptions is faster and more cost-effective than creating it from scratch in Spanish, although the originally crafted Spanish audio descriptions offer greater detail. Future research involving a larger corpus would be essential to validate the findings of this study. |
| publishDate |
2025 |
| dc.date.none.fl_str_mv |
2 2025-01-01 2025 2025-01-01 |
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Article http://purl.org/coar/resource_type/c_6501 VoR http://purl.org/coar/version/c_970fb48d4fbd8a85 |
| dc.type.openaire.fl_str_mv |
info:eu-repo/semantics/article |
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article |
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https://ddd.uab.cat/record/320353 https://dx.doi.org/urn:doi:10.1075/babel.24170.zha |
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https://ddd.uab.cat/record/320353 https://dx.doi.org/urn:doi:10.1075/babel.24170.zha |
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Inglés eng |
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Inglés |
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eng |
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Agència de Gestió d'Ajuts Universitaris i de Recerca https://doi.org/10.13039/501100003030 2021/SGR-00077 |
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open access http://purl.org/coar/access_right/c_abf2 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ |
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info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess |
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open access http://purl.org/coar/access_right/c_abf2 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ |
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openAccess |
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application/pdf |
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reponame:Dipòsit Digital de Documents de la UAB instname:Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona |
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Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona |
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