Earlier in the year our Digital Production Coordinator Vithya Vijayakumare jetted off on a well-deserved holiday. While in England, Vithya travelled to meet with Dr Mariana Lopez who is a lecturer in Sound and Post Production at the University of York.
Sound is a great passion of Vithya’s. She completed a Masters in Innovative Technology at Edith Cowan University, specialising in 3D Surround Sound before she came to VisAbility.
She had organised to meet with Mariana as she was keen to chat about using 3D sound in the field of digital accessibility (which is one of the large focuses of the work Vithya does in the Accessible Information Team, here at VisAbility).
The pair met at a local coffee shop and discussed at great length the new exciting developments of 3D sound.
“It was fantastic to finally meet Mariana. I really enjoyed our chat. We discussed how various sound technology available has played a part in making film and television more intuitive, inclusive and improved the user experience.” says Vithya.
Mariana’s background is in sound and music design. Using modern sound design technologies, Mariana has been able to create a new form of entertainment for vision impaired audiences that is based on the creation and representation of spaces.
“The current project Mariana is working on is of great interest to me. ‘Enhancing Audio Description’ is a project that aims to explore how sound design can be used to rethink accessibility to film and TV for people who have vision impairment or blindness.” Vithya says.
“I believe projects like Mariana’s really set the bar for inclusion and equality. With technological advancements, this is a very exciting space. I look forward to seeing Mariana’s project develop.”
You can view Dr Mariana Lopez’s website for Enhancing Audio Description for more information on her exciting project: Enhancing Audio Description (link opens in new window).
More information
If you are interested in making your own digital or print content more accessible, we have a number of accessibility training courses and workshops that detail the principles and tools for making your content accessible to everyone.