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Audio description (AD) in museums is crucial for making them accessible for people with visual impairments. Nevertheless, there are limited museum-specific AD guidelines currently available. This research examines current varied international practitioner perspectives on museum AD, focusing on imagery, meaning, emotion and degrees of objectivity, and the regional differences (Europe and United States) in AD traditions, in order to better understand how AD can be used to enhance access to museums.

Forty-two museum describers from 12 countries responded to a questionnaire requiring fixed-choice and free-text responses about the purpose and construction of museum AD.

Inference tests showed that European describers agreed more strongly than American describers that AD should “explore meaning” (U = 91.00, N1 = 24, N2 = 14, p = .03), and “create an emotional experience …