Olivia this is a great article and I agree with everything you are saying. I used to be a volunteer audio describer with VA (for four years) and I am mildly concerned about how you have characterised the service. It sounds an awful lot like the poor rhetoric Description Victoria bandied about when they first set up shop in Melbourne. I know from my training and from working over 4 years with other describers (we always work in pairs) that our training and practice is very strict about not talking over dialogue unless absolutely necessary and the policy is to say what you see within the confines of what space between the dialogue exists. We also always prepared preshow notes which were sent out to booked clients with detailed information on sets, costumes, cast and generally included a couple of reviews to make sure as little as possible was missed in the experience of listening to your describer. As far as I am aware VA audio description has been around for over 20 years and the service always maintains best international practice with regular training refreshers and monthly meeting to discuss issues, problems and solutions. I am sorry if you have had a bad experience, but that is not the norm for the Vision Australia service and just because the volunteers are not paid that does not mean the clients are not getting a world class service despite what the commercial new kid on the block is spinning as their PR. Having said all that, even Vision Australia agrees that audio description should be available for any performance and have been muddling over that for a few years. The problem is figuring out how to do it in a cost effective and affordable manner, and who can/should bear whatever costs there are.

Hi Alison, yes, I am not disputing anything Olivia says about the need for more and better services. Everyone, even Vision Australia is trying to solve that one. It is always a difficult balance for describers, particularly in scripts which are script heavy, trying to provide enough description and some describers are, of course, better than others. I guess my problem with Description Victoria is they needed the help of Vision Australia to get started and used their equipment but came right out of the blocks saying our service was crap and saying we were sub par when, in fact, our training equaled if not surpassed their own. (They are from SA). To be honest, this contempt and deliberate slurring of us as describers is exactly why I stopped doing it. I stopped doing it because of this slurring which they were only doing to drum up business without actually ever knowing what we did or how we did it. I will admit Vision Australia was to blame as well because their policy is to support all vision services and so they did nothing to support our reputation. Who knew the world of disability support was such a hotbed of politics?! There is also the question of why companies are prepared to pay Description Victoria but never paid a cent to Vision Australia…

Samsara, maybe Blind arts consumers are the people to speak to these questions? And of course disability access is political. It’s hard to see how it wouldn’t be, tbh.

Posting from Olivia Muscat:
Hi Samsara. I’m so glad you agree with what I have to say. My characterisation, as you put it, of the Vision Australia AD service, comes solely from my own personal experience of being a client for almost a decade. I appreciate the service, and what it does on the whole, and would never criticise unless I had good reason. Every point I mention in the essay is taken from things I have personally experienced on more than a couple of occasions. But as AD is the very least of what I mention in the essay I hope you, and others, can get past the perceived slights to VA and focus on creating a more inclusive arts experience for all. Whatever organisation you happen to be affiliated with.

Hi Olivia and Will, I understand the point of view of the artical and I mention in both my comments I totally agree with the access issues you raise and, as I mention, Vision Australia has been wrestling with these issues for a very long time now and I hope with so many advocates the issue is redressed somehow.

Will, I absolutely do have proof, which includes the very first press release Vision Australia put out publicly advocating your services. I have also been in discussions with other describers who have approached you and spoken to you personally and I know you insist that even experienced describers have to go through your full training program to work with you with no consideration for any skills or experience they already have which clearly speaks to you attitude about them. With the NDIS being implemented and the opening up of the disability sector to an open market economcy it was always going to happen and it is true Vision Australia was never prepared and are still rather intractable about changing with the times. I also understand you came into what was, effectively, a monopoly market demanding no economic cost and had to have a angle to get people to pay for a service they were getting for free. I also agree that describers should be paid just as Auslan interpreters are. I have no problem with any that. It is just worth noting the position you took playing the ‘volunteers aren’t skilled or professional whereas we are’ had casualties and the biggest losers in the end were blind and low vision people. A significant number of audio describers have dropped of the Vision Australia roster because of it. Having said that, it was not so much the marketing tactics of your company so much as the lack of support Vision Australia showed in terms of marketing their own services in a competition market place. Description Victoria is well established and I wish you well. You did everything you were entitled to do to gain market share and I have no doubt you do the job well.

Hmm. This is obviously a sore point Samsara, but I really don’t understand why audio describers would stop volunteering because some Blind people said the service could be improved or another organisation said it needed to be more professional? Forgive me, but to an outsider it sounds very like men calling themselves feminist “allies” but pulling support the moment women say that they’re being sexist…

Firstly, it is not hearsay when it is happening to me directly, Will. I was there. I heard it, I saw it, and it happened to me. In fact, I was the first describer to find evidence of the public rhetoric being thrown about and brought it to the attention of the VA audio description service. I have also said I agree everything which was said and done was entirely your right and many consequences were not your fault.

Alison I don’t think that is a fair analogy and just because people may have stopped describing because the environment was one of disrespect does not mean many of us have not found other ways to provide support, advocacy, and services for the disability sector generally and the low vision sector specifically. And yes it was a very sore point because at least half the describers during my time were, like me, extensively experienced and highly trained theatre practitioners as well as highly trained audio describers. The intention of VA describers has always been to increase access to theatre and entertainment events and we all started at a time when the idea of it being a commercial enterprise would never have even been entertained by either the disability or entertainment sector.

Regardless, as I said earlier, I do wish everyone in the sector well and I do look back fondly on my time engaging with audio description. I even occassionally do ad hoc projects on special requests. I am just not strong enough to cope with more impuning of my reputation – even if it is just by association – and yes, that is my weakness. I also reiterate, Description Victoria did nothing technically wrong.

Will, I do take your point that I have never met you but I also would like to point out you never made an effort to make any contact with us either and it was you who was ‘moving into our territory’ so to speak…

Anyway, c’est la vie, and as the Libs keep trying to tell us, more open market competition is always a good thing 🙂

Samsara, I suggest that you take up your beef with Will in another forum. You are totally sidelining Olivia’s important points in order to centre your own hurt feelings. I will say, however, that painting Description Victoria as a neoliberal commercial enterprise is absurd.

Alison, you can’t end with a sentence like that and assume the conversation would end. Firstly both you and Will have been complicit in this conversation so it is not my sole responsibility it has continued. I merely respond to you provocations as you do to mine. Secondly I never characterised Description Victoria in such a way although I don’t understand why you say it is absurd. They are a commercial enterprise, that is all I have said as well as discussing the changing market structure under the NDIS for all disability services which has a direct impact on Olivia’s ideas because if Audio Description becomes an eligible service it might be that participants can fund audio description themselves and not have to rely on specific predetermined dates and times. However, it was also relevant for me to respond to Olivia’s comments about the Vision Australia service because she is the one who brought it up. Finally, in nearly every response post I have brought us back to Olivia’s article and specifically mentioned how I support her ideas on increased accessibility. I understand you may have taken Will under your wing to champion and you do that well for everyone you support, but dismissing my comments in this thread as emotional detritus is not promoting debate on any issue. Yes, my feelings were hurt, but more importantly the issue is that one of the two organisations providing the service is being continuously demeaned and disenfranchised by the kind of negative comments which occur in this article and in other important places – comments which were never in the conversation prior to competition entering the field. Rather than strengthening the industry in providing these services and looking for workable solutions to increase access for blind and low vision people, this kind of rhetoric diminishes it. Olivia is right about crumbs. I have disabilities too and I know what she is referring to but maligning people who have been working hard for decades to provide a service no-one was paying for (we invested approximately 20 hours per show into preparation activities x 2 people and I know I averaged 5 – 7 shows a year not to mention monthly meetings and regular training refreshers). It is important these type of articles play the ball, not the man – or the volunteers in this case. My feelings were hurt yes, but that was a couple of years ago now. Now I am talking about broader issues of industry support, sustainability, and service provision. Vision Australia provided this support with contact lists and partnership with Description Victoria when they started up. It is hard to see what came back to the organisaton in return to strengthen and increase services for the low vision community which is what Olivia is asking for.

Samsara, I suggest the main message here is to listen to what Olivia and other Blind and VI people have to say. You have instead focused on taking offence at Olivia’s descriptions of her own experiences and turned this into a singularly profitless airing of grievances. Olivia’s comments are measured and also fair (she said she is grateful for the service). Nobody is maligning anybody here, aside from your weird animus against DV. Again: this is not the forum for this and you are derailing the discussion.

Thanks, Larry!