Unveiling Audio Description Styles’ Diversity in Persian
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Audio description (AD) is indispensable for ensuring that visual media becomes fully accessible to blind and visually impaired (BVI) individuals, thereby allowing them to actively participate in and enjoy films and television shows alongside sighted audiences. Although AD serves as a cornerstone of media accessibility and inclusivity, the rich diversity of AD styles in practice has attracted surprisingly limited scholarly attention, with even less directed toward non-Western contexts such as Iran. This study seeks to fill this gap by conducting an in-depth investigation into Persian-language AD, with a primary focus on identifying and categorizing its distinct styles' variations. The research methodology commences with a comprehensive review and synthesis of the existing international literature on AD styles, which informs the construction of a detailed analytical framework. This framework ultimately encompasses seven well-defined styles, each characterized by three fundamental elements. To operationalize this framework, data collection continues until data saturation, at which point the presence or absence of the AD styles identified in the literature was consistently observed across the samples. Finally, 21 drama films were reached, and underwent a meticulous analysis of their scripts. The results from this script analysis demonstrate marked stylistic preferences within Persian AD. The objective style emerged as the most frequently used, accounting for 33.3% of the total instances. The descriptive style followed, comprising 28.5% and prioritizing visual elements to enhance the audience’s understanding. The mixed style, which strategically combines other subjective techniques, accounted for 23.8%, while the narrative style, a narratological approach to content selection, accounted for 14.2%. By establishing this typology, the study significantly advances scholarly understanding of AD practices in Iran and provides a foundation for future improvements in accessibility standards and training.
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