OOONA Partners With Audio Description Associates

OOONA, a provider of professional media localization tools, has announced a partnership with Audio Description Associates, LLC.

This collaboration will introduce specialised audio description training to OOONA’s EDU platform.

Audio Description Associates, LLC, founded by renowned audio describer Dr. Joel Snyder, brings decades of expertise to the partnership.

Through this partnership, OOONA's EDU platform will host Dr. Snyder's renowned training sessions, making them accessible to professionals worldwide.

The collaboration will also lead to the creation of the first-ever multilingual and assessment-based certification in audio description.

"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," added 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."