OOONA Partners with Audio Description Associates, LLC

OOONA, a leading provider of professional management and production tools for the media localization industry, announced today a partnership with Audio Description Associates, LLC. This collaboration will introduce specialized, assessment-based audio description training to OOONA’s EDU platform, expanding access to expert-led courses and certifications.

Founded in 1995 by Joel Snyder, Ph.D., one of the world’s first audio describers, Audio Description Associates, LLC brings decades of expertise to the partnership. Joel Snyder, who began his pioneering work in audio description in 1981, has lent his voice and description writing skills to thousands of live performances, broadcast programs, IMAX films, museum exhibits, educational videos, and live events such as presidential inaugurations, tours and cruises. Over the years, he has also trained countless describers and conducted workshops or produced description for audiences in more than 65 countries.

Through this partnership, OOONA’s EDU platform will host Joel Snyder’s renowned training sessions, making them widely available to media localization professionals worldwide. A significant milestone of the collaboration will ultimately be the creation of the first-ever multilingual and assessment-based certification in audio description developed via AVTpro.

“Our mission with the revamped EDU platform is to offer comprehensive courses on all essential media localization skills and tasks typically completed by professionals in the market,” says Andrew Garb, Global Account Manager at OOONA. “To achieve this, we partner with leading professionals and companies in the media localization space. We are thrilled to have Dr Snyder join our list of tutors on the EDU platform and help develop an audio description course tailored to our users.”

Joel Snyder also expressed his enthusiasm at this partnership: “Advocating for people who are blind or have low vision has been a lifelong passion of mine; I have been trying to spread the practice of audio description for over 40 years. I am very excited at the potential of making my courses even more widely accessible through OOONA EDU. This partnership also makes a long-standing aspiration of mine come true – to establish a certification that recognizes expert audio describers in the industry worldwide.”

“The addition of audio description to the AVTpro certification is a natural extension of its mission to uphold professional standards in the media localization market,” adds Professor Jorge Díaz-Cintas from the Centre for Translation Studies (CenTraS) at University College London. “While we started the initiative by acknowledging the professional proficiency of certified subtitlers, integrating audio description has always been a priority. Partnering with Dr Snyder allows us to achieve this milestone and take a very significant step towards standardizing and advancing the profession of audio description in media localization, ensuring inclusivity and excellence for audiences worldwide.”

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Audio Description Associates, LLC (https://audiodescribe.com) professionals use their expertise with description fundamentals and the arts to create access for people who are blind or have impaired vision. Audio Description provides a verbal version of the visual image, offering description of the critical visual elements-action, costumes, settings and the like-of theater, television/film, museum exhibitions, and other events. Patrons with vision loss experience all the visually engaging elements of cultural events, the rich variety of colors, lighting effects, levels, gestures and facial expressions that others often take for granted:  critical bits of information that a person who has low vision formerly could only experience through the whispered asides from a sighted companion.

OOONA.Net Ltd (https://ooona.net) is a globally recognized provider of professional management and production tools for the media localization industry. Renowned for its state-of-the-art software catering to subtitling, voiceover, dubbing and captioning needs, OOONA’s modular, pay-as-you-go pricing model empowers users to tailor solutions to their specific requirements. The company is trusted by leading media localizers, broadcasters and a vast user base spanning over 160 countries. OOONA complements its offering with EDU, a platform dedicated to training in media localization, The POOOL, an online directory for industry professionals, and is the leading force behind AVTpro, the first ever professional certification in media localization.

Contacts for further information

Newsmedia support: David Kirk, Stylus Media Communications

+44 (0)1342 311983 | [email protected]

Audio Description Associates: Joel Snyder, President

https://audiodescribe.com | [email protected]

Audio Description Associates, 6502 Westmoreland Avenue, Takoma Park, MD 20912 USA

24-hour message service: 301 920-0218 | https://audiodescribe.com

OOONA: Andrew Garb, Global Account Manager

+972 732-688126 | [email protected]

OOONA.Net Ltd., Hata’asiya St 4, Tel Aviv, Israel

+972 732-688126 | [email protected] | https://ooona.net

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