Translated from English or created in Spanish? The reception of audio description for video games

Video gaming has gained immense popularity as a form of entertainment all around the world. However, most games are not fully accessible for players with visual disabilities. Audio description (AD) translates visual elements into spoken words, thus making games accessible to players with vision loss...

Descripción completa

Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores: Mangiron i Hevia, Carme|||0000-0002-6421-8581, Zhang, Xiaochun|||0000-0001-6334-6525
Tipo de recurso: artículo
Fecha de publicación:2025
País:España
Institución:Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona
Repositorio:Dipòsit Digital de Documents de la UAB
Idioma:inglés
OAI Identifier:oai:ddd.uab.cat:318757
Acceso en línea:https://ddd.uab.cat/record/318757
https://dx.doi.org/urn:doi:10.1075/ts.24037.man
Access Level:acceso abierto
Palabra clave:Video games
Visual game accessibility
Audio description
Reception study
Blind and partially sighted players
Descripción
Sumario:Video gaming has gained immense popularity as a form of entertainment all around the world. However, most games are not fully accessible for players with visual disabilities. Audio description (AD) translates visual elements into spoken words, thus making games accessible to players with vision loss. The TransAD4games project aims to explore the creation and translation of audio descriptions for video games to improve game accessibility across languages and cultures. This article presents part of the research findings from the TransAD4games, reporting the outcomes of a reception study on players' preferences and opinion about AD for the game Before I Forget (3-Fold Games, 2020) translated from English into Spanish and AD created from scratch in Spanish. Results show that while players preferred the original Spanish AD created from scratch, they also appreciated the translated version, suggesting that translating AD is a viable and acceptable option to improve visual game accessibility.