AVT Masterclass

Audio Description Instructors

Anna Jankowska is a researcher in audiovisual translation and media accessibility. She now works at the University of Antwerp, where she co-manages the OPEN Expertise Centre for Accessible Media and Culture. Before that, she was a visiting scholar with the TransMedia Calatonia research group at the Universitat Autonoma de Barcelona and worked at the Chair for Translation at the Jagiellonian University in Kraków. Defended at the Jagiellonian University in Kraków (Poland), Anna's doctoral dissertation focused on using translation to produce audio description scripts in multiple languages. Within her research work, she collaborated in developing the AudioMovie app, which provides audio description and audio subtitles in cinemas via mobile devices. She is a member of the European Society for Studies in Screen Translation (ESIST) and the Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of Audiovisual Translation. Anna combines her academic experience with practice in the audiovisual translation and media accessibility industry. She worked as a freelance audiovisual translator and audio described for over 10 years and co-founded and co-managed the Seventh Sense Foundation - an NGO that provides accessibility services, training, and consultancy. In her work, she collaborated with local clients and international localization services providers and, most importantly, with users of various accessibility services. She has 15 years of experience in training in audiovisual translation and media accessibility, both at university-level courses and running training programs for companies and institutions.

Audio Description Instructors

Nina Reviers is a tenure-track professor in Audiovisual Translation and Media Accessibility at the University of Antwerp, where she co-manages the OPEN Expertise Centre for Accessible Media and Culture. She defended her Phd at the University of Antwerp in 2018. It focused on the linguistic profiling of the language of audio description in Dutch, and it was awarded the EST Young Scholar Prize in 2019. Her research addresses linguistic and multimodal aspects of audio description, (computer-aided translation) of audio description, integrated access for the (scenic) arts and technology for access. She is a member of the European Society for Studies in Screen Translation (ESIST) and a member of the Editorial Board of the Journal of Audiovisual Translation. Nina combines her academic experience with practice in media accessibility. She fosters a close collaboration with stakeholders as a key factor in her research and teaching activities. She has 10 years of experience as a trainer in subtitling and audio description, for university courses as well as courses for professional development for freelancers, companies and institutions.

Audio Description Instructors

Gert Vercauteren is a tenure track professor at the University of Antwerp, where he co-manages the OPEN Expertise Centre for Accessible Media and Culture. Defended at the University of Antwerp (2016) his PhD focuses on audio description and, more specifically, on selecting relevant information to be described. His current research centres on narratology in audio description with a particular focus on sound and cognitive load in/and audio description. He has over 20 years of experience as a trainer, and during this time, he taught media accessibility, translation technology, and audiovisual translation and communication. He also works as an audio describer, maintaining a close link with the audiovisual translation industry.