Audio description of school environments: an accessibility strategy for the inclusion of students with visual impairments

Abstract

This paper aims to present a university extension project developed in 2024-2025 and designed to develop methodologies and products that provide students from municipal public schools in Bauru with information about the physical characteristics of their educational institutions—such as the structure, dimensions, architectural and furnishing features of the buildings and their environments, as well as the spatial arrangement of elements—to support orientation and mobility. The project responds to the needs of students, particularly those with visual impairments, enrolled in municipal schools in Bauru, São Paulo. The participatory methodology involved on-site technical visits for data collection, the preparation of audio description scripts (following technical and theoretical parameters and supervised by blind audio description consultants), narration and editing of the scripts, and the distribution of the final files through digital media. The project was carried out over a period of ten months by five undergraduate members of the Education, Research and Extension Laboratory on Media Accessibility from the São Paulo State University and resulted in the production of detailed audio descriptions of the internal and external structures of the school buildings, as well as their open spaces. These descriptions included information on architectural features, spatial layout, furniture arrangement, and related elements. The final outcome consists of nine audio descriptions covering both the internal and external areas of three municipal schools in Bauru/SP, contributing to accessibility and inclusion within the school environment. A notable aspect of the project is the active participation of multiple stakeholders at different stages of development: from identifying which schools would be included, to validation carried out by consultants with visual impairments, testing phases with teachers and students, and even the release of an open script format that allows the schools themselves to propose future updates in the event of spatial modifications.