Description

Audio Description For the Arts
NON-CREDIT SYNCHRONOUS ONLINE
INSTRUCTOR: Dr. Joel Snyder
TUITION: $850
For credit option available: CVPA 399 - CRN: 80779
Mondays, 10:30 - 1:10pmAugust 24 - December 7, 2026 (15 weeks)Skip dates: Sept 7, Oct 12
In Fall of 2026 George Mason University will offer its first-ever course in Audio Description.
The online, interactive sessions (limited use of lecture, questions/discussion throughout, generous use of media, and individual and group writing exercises) are designed to provide immediate feedback and "give and take," allowing for adaptation according to a sense of participants' grasp of the material. In addition, experienced users of audio description are a part of the course providing an important perspective throughout the sessions.
BE A PART OF IT!
Writers – Theater Artists – Media Makers – Visual Art Creators
How do you make the arts accessible to someone who can’t see it? Maybe they’re blind or have low vision — maybe they’re in the wrong room. Or maybe arts access is its own kind of aesthetic innovation.
Audio Description (AD) makes visual images accessible for people who are blind or have low vision. Using words that are succinct, vivid, and imaginative, audio describers convey the visual image from myriad art forms that is not fully accessible to a significant segment of the population (more than 32 million Americans experience significant vision loss).
Who Should Attend?

Anyone interested in:

• Working as freelance description writers for broadcast television or film/video (the implementation of the 21st Century Communications and Video Accessibility Act has spawned a virtual cottage industry for the development of description for media)
  
  
• Working as a describer in a local performing arts program
  
  
• Working as a describer for museum exhibitions
  
  
• Experienced audio describers desiring an updated refresher course.

Topics Include

• Audio description history and theory
  
  
• The "Four Fundamentals of Audio Description" ©
  
  
• Active seeing/visual literacy-developing skills in concentration and observation
  
  
• The art of "editing" what you see
  
  
• Vivid language: "The Visual Made Verbal"™
  
  
• "Speak the speech, I pray you"-- using the spoken word to make meaning

Each registrant will receive a PDF copy of Dr. Joel Snyder's The Visual Made Verbal: A Comprehensive Training Manual and Guide to the History and Applications of Audio Description published by the American Council of the Blind.
Participants enrolled in this non-credit option will receive a Letter of Completion with course hours to be applied towards professional development hours (with administrator approval).

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Online registration closes 1 week before the first class at 9:00a, however space may still be available! Please contact the office to check academy@gmu.edu or 703-993-9889. A $10 late registration fee may apply.

• Add academy@gmu.edu to your email contact list in order to receive important information before the class starts. Email is our primary method of communication to enrolled students.
  

Activity Sub-Category

Adults

Location

ONLINE