Likewise, cinemas can install the equipment to make the technology available to the public. Trained caption writers transcribe the audio part of the film, adding or adapting information to give a full sense of what is happening on the screen. The caption writers rely heavily on time coding to carefully time and place the captions. The captions are also placed on the screen in relation to who is speaking, e.g left, right or centre. Descriptions are written by specially trained staff at NCAM, who listen to the movie without watching it, so that they can get a sense of how a blind person would experience the film.
Close attention is paid to the impact of the soundtrack.
The 'describer' uses special software to map out the pauses of the movie, and then places the most descriptive passages possible into the gaps. A movie that has been formatted in this way can then also be released on home video or DVD, making it even more accessible to those with an impairment. All rights reserved.