Introduction to Audio Description

Where: Online via Zoom

When: Wednesday April 17, 6:30-8:30 PM BST (British Standard Time)

Cost: £12 Concessions / £15 Standard

Concessions are available for artists who are students, disabled, aged 60+, or members of a union.

Five free spots in each workshop are available to deaf, disabled, neurodiverse, Black, and Global Majority artists on a first-come, first-serve basis.

Access: Part of the Main is committed to meeting the access needs of all participants, including providing support workers and BSL Interpreters as requested. Please contact hello@partofthemain.com as soon as possible to arrange support.

About the Workshop

Join leading audio describer and trainer Roz Chalmers MBE for an introduction to providing Audio Description for theatre patrons with visual impairment.

In this workshop, Roz will introduce participants to the basics of Audio Description, including:

• How audio describers with work productions and venues to provide description

• What kind of technology is used to provide patrons with description

• What goes into writing Introductory Notes

• What goes into writing Audio Description

• How Audio Describers approach creating notes and description

• What a touch tour entails

Roz will be joined by Glen Turner, a visually impaired accessibility advocate and culture writer who runs the blog Well Eye Never. Glen will provide insight into audio description from the perspective of a user.

By the end of this workshop, participants will gain a full understanding of what Audio Description entails and how to best work with a describer to make theatre productions more accessible to visually impaired patrons.

About Roz Chalmers

Roz Chalmers MBE has been an audio describer and captioner at the National Theatre since 2000 and shortly after began to work for VocalEyes and Stagetext, organisations funded by Arts Council England to increase access and inclusion to UK arts and heritage. Roz also works independently at the Old Vic Theatre and other venues.

Roz has dedicated her working life to providing access to the arts (at theatres, museums, heritage sites, circuses and festivals, etc.) as as an audio describer for blind and visually impaired people, and a lip-speaker and captioner for D/deaf, deafened and hard of hearing people. She has spearheaded the delivery of inclusive practices and is recognised as one of the UK’s most dedicated arts access ambassadors, who works unstintingly to further the cause of accessibility and inclusion within the arts.

Roz has trained many new practitioners, audio describers, across the UK and abroad. She is passionate about ensuring that her skills and experience and those of her peers are passed on to a new generation of describers and captioners.

In June 2023, Roz was awarded an MBE (member of the Order of the British Empire) in King Charles III’s Birthday Honours list in recognition for services to the arts and to people with sensory impairments.