OOONA, a leading provider of professional management and production tools for the media localization industry, announced 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.”
