Let Me Hear What You’re Seeing. This is my journey into the audio described world. My name’s Shari. Based in Meanjin/Brisbane, Queensland I am a professional Audio Describer with over 10 years’ experience bringing cultural experiences to people who are blind or have low vision.
Audio Description
Audio Description (AD) is a service allowing people who are blind or have low vision, to enhance their experience of arts or cultural events by having the important visual elements described to them aurally. This is can done live, for events like weddings, theatre, musicals, concerts and dance, or can be pre-recorded for use in film, television, museums and art exhibitions. Audio Description can also be used to enhance an experience in nature, such as bushwalking or touristing. In other words, Let Me Hear What You’re Seeing.
So how did AD
arrive in my life?
My first great love was Theatre: I completed a BA in Drama from QUT in 2000. The next romance was Stories – so I completed a BA in Literary Studies from UQ in 2012. In this same year I’d started a new job as a producer at Queensland Theatre, having spent the previous 11 years at La Boite Theatre Company. It was at Queensland Theatre when an email from Vision Australia popped into my inbox seeking to recruit more audio description volunteers in Brisbane. When I learned more, it became an obvious fit for me: a way to contribute a meaningful service to the community using the skills I had already honed through my practice as a theatre-maker, story-teller, and performer. If I’m honest, I was ashamed of myself for not having considered until then that, of course, there were folks who were blind or had low vision who loved – or needed – theatre and live performance as much as I did, and, of course, they had a right to enjoy it as often as I did.
What happened Next?
I auditioned for the Vision Australia volunteer AD team, completed the initial training and have been AD-ing live events in Brisbane ever since. Musicals, plays, ballet, opera, kids’ shows – all of it. It’s a great challenge, very fun and rewarding. Zip ahead to 2021 and the tide of awareness was rising in the performing arts sector in Brisbane for accessible live events. Admirably, it was the smaller, independent theatre companies and artists that were the first to recognise that providing accessibility services was a crucial component of building a loyal and connected audience base. I was more frequently being invited by theatre-makers or producers to audio describe plays with short-seasons or one-night-only shows in Brisbane and – in appreciation of my services – I was remunerated! Thus, Vantagepoint, my bespoke AD consultancy, was formed.
The Benefits
It’s been wonderful to witness the growing awareness and effort being made to ensure cultural experiences in Brisbane are accessible to as many people as possible, and I feel very privileged to have provided AD for beloved events like the Lord Mayor’s Christmas Carols, The Undercover Artist Festival, and the Kurilpa Derby to name a few. Queensland Theatre made a commitment in 2024 to have every play in their annual season audio described. The number of AD events available in this year’s Brisbane Festival has tripled from previous offerings, and for the first time in their 13-year history, Bleach* the contemporary arts festival at the Gold Coast, provided audio description at some of their events.
Let Me Hear What you See
I’m enjoying the good fight to improve access to cultural and social events through educating producers, organisers, and venues about their responsibility to ensure inclusion, and finding ways to demystify the experience of blindness/low vision for the general public. I acknowledge that as a sighted person, I will always learn best from listening to the experiences of people with blindness/low vision, and I’m very grateful for the generous feedback and positive connections I’ve made with these folx over the years I’ve been doing audio description work. I guess I’m entering my third great occupational love affair. …What can I say? I’ve been very lucky in love.
Shari Irwin Bibliography
Facilitating accessibility for Blind and Low Vision arts lovers, Shari has been audio describing live performance since 2012 through her volunteering with Vision Australia, and from 2021 in her private consultancy Vantagepoint Audio Description. Her clients include The Little Red Company, Queensland Theatre, Brisbane Festival, and Access Arts. Her theatre and literary studies were completed at QUT and UQ, and she is currently undertaking post-graduate studies in allied health as an Orientation and Mobility Specialist through UNSW’s school of Optometry and Vision Science.