Seeing Isn't Believing

Blindness, Race, and Cultural Literacy

Bibliographic Data

ID4364534
AuthorsE Gerber (0000-0002-2646-1652, American Foundation for the Blind, corresponding author)
Year2007
Volume2
Issue1
Pages27-40
Publication date2007-03-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessNo
TypeARTICLE
VenueThe Senses and Society (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 1745-8927 • E-ISSN: 1745-8935
PublisherInforma UK Limited (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.2752/174589207779996965
OpenAlexW1998496517
LanguageEN
Citations received5
References cited12

This article focuses on audio description (a technique used for "translating" visual material to aural readers/blind people) and its relation to the cultural construction of race in the United States. In it, I present exploratory research on audio description (AD) and raise important questions in the field of visual anthropology: how does one translate visual material for a non-seeing audience? From the point of view of blind consumers, what constitutes "good" description? What is culturally salient in the visual field? Is race important to describe? This paper presents the results of three telephone focus groups on AD, conducted in the USA in the fall of 2005. The focus groups involved thirty-nine blind or visually impaired people nationwide, who discussed (among other things) the need for race to be described. These participants argued for the need for race-based knowledge as an important part of cultural literacy, and, in so doing, raised questions about how visual race is

Blindness · Exploratory research · Focus (optics · Literacy · Pedagogy · Point (geometry · Race (biology · Salient · Social science · Sociology · Visual impairment · Visual Literacy · Computer Science · Gender Studies · Hearing Impairment and Communication · Medicine · Psychology · Subtitles and Audiovisual Media · Artificial Intelligence · Optometry

Tools

Open DOISci-Hub