Latvian Academy of Culture has created an informative manual on the development and use of subtitles and audio descriptions in cultural events
The Latvian Academy of Culture (LKA) in cooperation with the Riga International Film Festival within the framework of the educational ERASMUS+ project "Audio Description Against Exclusion" has created a unique manual. For the first time in Latvian, there is now available material that summarizes the most important theses that must be considered to create and use an audio description and/or descriptive subtitles at cultural events. The material can be found on the website of the LKA theater house "Zirgu pasts".
The aim of the project "Audio Description Against Exclusion" was to bring to the fore such an essential and yet still marginal issue of cultural accessibility for various groups of society, including persons with visual and hearing impairments. During the workshops held in Latvia, Lithuania, Cyprus, and Romania, the participants had the opportunity to supplement their knowledge in the field of cultural accessibility. The manual summarizes the most important theses from the project's training, the experience, and recommendations of the participating partner countries in developing cultural content for people with visual or hearing impairments.
Participation in the project inspired us as an organization to develop cultural accessibility more purposefully. Currently, topics related to cultural accessibility are already partially integrated into the study courses of the Latvian Academy of Culture, we also continue to cooperate with non-governmental organizations that were involved in the project "Audio description against exclusion" and we are preparing new projects to develop our own and students' skills and knowledge of cultural accessibility in the field.
Photo: Andrejs Strokins