Sheldene Seth: Sight Unseen co-director on the new web series designed to spotlight experience of vision-impaired people

A new web series dropping this week is set to highlight the stories told by blind and low-vision youth - as well as the accessibility they have to our media.

Created by media access services company Able, Sight Unseen showcases audio description, which allows the visually impaired to enjoy shows with an added layer of audio telling them what is happening on the screen. 

Co-director Sheldene Seth says the goal of the series is to raise awareness - and showcase the 'awesome' stories from New Zealand's blind community.

"It does do two things, which is awesome. We did feature some fantastic talent for the series that are very passionate about the things that they do and engage with every day."

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:06):
You're listening to the Sunday Session podcast with Francesca Rudkin
from News TALKSEDB.

Speaker 2 (00:12):
Right Now Though, a new web series dropping this week
is highlighting the stories from our blind and low vision
youth and also the accessibility that they have to our media.
Created by Media access service company able site, Unseen showcases
audio description, which allows the visually impaired to enjoy shows
with an added layer of audio telling them what is

(00:34):
happening on the screen. For any of you who haven't
heard an audio description before, take a listen here. As
one of the guests, Thomas explains how his skis blind.

Speaker 3 (00:45):
They make you wear blacked out goggles. He pulls on
a black fabric mask, completely covering his face and eyes.
A man with a gray beard and dark shades like
a Santa Claus joined a biker gang guides Tom to
her skis.

Speaker 2 (00:59):
So John as your guide right, he's a volunteer with
Adaptive Snowsports Canterbury. To talk me through the importance of
the series, co direct Sheldean Seth is with me now.
Good morning Sheldean, Good morning Francesca.

Speaker 4 (01:11):
How are you good?

Speaker 2 (01:12):
Thank you? How are we doing a good job here
in New Zealand of making our media accessible.

Speaker 4 (01:18):
Yeah, well, actually, surprisingly, AD is quite readily available on
broadcast TV at the stage where you can actually flick
on that feature on TV one, TV two, three, that's
that's readily available. But at this stage it's not available
on any on demand platforms, which we really would love

(01:39):
to see that up and running very very soon.

Speaker 2 (01:43):
But as it as entertaining as yours.

Speaker 4 (01:45):
It's not quite well we see. For this particular web series,
we did push the bounds a bit of what AD
is like. Normally, AD is quite a neutral, very doesn't
really play a role in the storytelling or the or
have an opinion on what's going on. But for the series,

(02:05):
we wanted to add a bit of spice and a
bit of flavored just so that it had that extra
layer of entertainment for people who may not have interfaced
with AD before. So, I don't know, I would say
ours is probably the most entertaining.

Speaker 2 (02:18):
I think so, I absolutely think. So, Hey, why is
it important to make this media accessible?

Speaker 4 (02:24):
Yeah, it's making this series really accessible is important because
not many people know about Audio description. It is a
lesser known media access service that is available to all viewers. Actually,
anybody can use it, but it does benefit the blind,
vision impaired and low vision community the most. With this,

(02:45):
we wanted everybody from general audience young people to know
what AD is and to just to raise that awareness
really so that people know that it's a thing. It's
very it's readily available here.

Speaker 2 (03:00):
Yeah, so Sight Unseen the series, it's kind of doing
two things. It's it's making the a D you know,
explaining to people like me what it is. But also
you're sharing these really amazing stories from you know, blind
from the blind and low vision community, you know, give
us a bit of understanding about their lives.

Speaker 4 (03:20):
Yes, that's right, it does have It does do two things,
which is awesome. We did feature some fantastic talent for
the series that are very passionate about the things that
they do and engage with every day, and their stories
provide awesome scenes for audio description.

Speaker 2 (03:38):
Two, is it a hard product to make.

Speaker 4 (03:43):
The series or yeah?

Speaker 2 (03:44):
Yeah, well the series when you add the audio description in.

Speaker 4 (03:48):
Yes, So this definitely took a different approach to how
audio description is normally produced. So we thought about a
D from the pre production process because it was built
into the series. So with this in mind, what that
meant is from the scripting phase we were able to
detect and how long scenes needed to extend out for

(04:09):
so that we could fit that extra layer of narration. Normally,
AD comes at the end of the end of the
line when something's been produced and that audio describer is
chasing all the teeny tiny gaps where possible to provide
that visual context. So for this series, it anchored us
all the way from the start, all the way through

(04:29):
to the finish, to the point where we had the
audio description dictate how long some scenes were. We got
to justin post production to make it, to make it
fit and make it awesome.

Speaker 2 (04:42):
I noticed that the series is dropping on Instagram and TikTok.
Is that about reaching a younger, different market.

Speaker 4 (04:50):
Yes, definitely, So we want to reach young people that
is on social media platforms already, who who find who
find content like this engaging and quite cool. A lot
of the some of the ad has language that might
that you wouldn't he on regular ad on TV, and
it definitely speaks to the generation that we're trying to

(05:12):
tap into. Yeah, we wanted to present this content in
a place where people can easily access.

Speaker 2 (05:19):
It, and in terms of the work that Able is
doing providing captions and audio descriptions on free to air.
Where do you hope to be able to expand your
services to.

Speaker 4 (05:31):
Yes, so we would love to see a bigger uptake
of the services on our on demand platforms here in
New Zealand. At the moment, captions and audio description go
to broadcast every day of the week here in New Zealand,
and when it comes to our on demand platforms, not
all of them well a lot of them have captions

(05:53):
on there, but then none of them can actually house
audio description yet, so we're really really pushing and hoping
for that to change.

Speaker 2 (06:01):
It's interesting, isn't it. So it can go out live
and you might have the audio description, but then if
you want to go and watch it in their own
time and stream it, that's not carried over.

Speaker 4 (06:10):
No, that's correct, and that comes down to some technical
things that are not quite not quite there yet. But
at Able we produce over one hundred and forty hours
of audio described content for broadcast Telly and we'd love
to see it have a longer shelf life online.

Speaker 2 (06:26):
Oh Sheldine, thank you so much for joining me. I
very much enjoyed this series. You should go and have
a look at it. It's called Site Unseen at premieeres
on TikTok and Instagram on Wednesday the twenty sixth. It's
then available on able, dot co dot nz and on
YouTube from Monday, March the third. Some really fantastic You
meet some really amazing new Zealanders there from the blind
and low vision community. But then you also get to

(06:48):
enjoy how they've managed to bring in you'll get the
sort of a bit more of a sense of what
this audio description is, but it really actually kind of
contributes to the show. They've done a really great job
of the way they integrate it. Very entertaining.

Speaker 4 (07:01):
Indeed.

Speaker 1 (07:02):
For more from the Sunday session with Francesca Rudkin, listen
Live News Talks it Be from nine am Sunday, or
follow the podcast on iHeartRadio