LiveDescribe : can amateurs create quality video description

This thesis explores amateur video description facilitated through the video description software program called LiveDescribe. Twelve amateur describers created video description which was reviewed by 76 sighted, low vision, and blind reviewers. It was found that describers were able to not only produce description but that their descriptions seem to be perceived as having an acceptable level of quality. Three describers were found to be rated as "good", three were rated as "weak" and the remaining six were in a "medium" category. The common factors that appeared to characterize the good describers were a soft non-obtrusive voice, a moderate amount of well placed descriptions, moderate description lengths and English as a first language spoken without an accent or regional dialect. It was found that LiveDescribe was a useful and easy to use tool and that it facilitated a video description work flow process for amateur describers.