12/07/13 AEB's Guidelines for Verbal Description

Online Accessibility Training

AEB'S GUIDELINES FOR VERBAL DESCRIPTION
Elisabeth Salzhauer Axel, Virginia Hooper, Teresa Kardoulias, Sarah Stephenson
Keyes, and Francesca Rosenberg

Verbal description is a way of using words to represent the visual world. This
kind of description enables persons who are blind or visually impaired to form
a mental image of what they cannot see. Verbal description has been used to
make visual information accessible in film, television, and, more recently, in
museums. In museums, verbal description may be used before, after, or
during a standard gallery tour. Having a lecturer who can respond to particular
questions and engage museum visitors in thought-provoking conversation is
one way of providing descriptions of works of art. Additionally, descriptions
may be provided in the form of an audioguide, enabling museums to develop
an archive of narratives for specific works of art. In the best scenario, these
two resources are used in a complementary manner.

The following guidelines comprise a basic methodology that museum

educators and art teachers can use to create successful verbal descriptions of
painting, sculpture, and architecture, as well as works in other media.
Accompanying this section are passages excerpted from Art History Through
Touch and Sound: A Multisensory Guide for the Blind and Visually Impaired, a
twenty-one-volume audio-book series developed by Art Education for the
Blind, Inc. These excerpted passages suggest a few of the ways an educator
can create successful verbal descriptions of visual art.

1. Standard Information

Verbal description starts with the standard information found on a museum's

object label: artist, nationality, title, date, mediums, dimensions, and the
custodian or location of the work. While not necessarily descriptive, this basic
information provides blind and visually impaired individuals with the same
information available to sighted viewers. Additionally, object-label
information places the work in an historical context and establishes a
foundation for much of the information that follows. The example below is a
straightforward way of imparting the information.

This sculpture is from ancient Egypt, and the artist is unknown. The work
has been given the title Scribe Statue of General Horemhab. The
sculpture was made during Dynasty 18, around 1333 to 1323 B.C.E. The
medium is granite. The work measures 46 inches high, or 117
centimeters. The sculpture is in the collection of The Metropolitan
Museum of Art, in New York.
-Art Education for the Blind (AEB) and Marsha Hill, The Art of Ancient
Egypt

If the size of a work is important, draw the viewer's attention to this feature
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and provide a familiar analogy. Relative size is particularly useful because

everyone can identify with the size of a familiar object. For instance, Jackson
Pollock's painting One, which measures 8 ft. 10 in. x 17 ft. 5 in., can be
compared to the size of six single mattresses placed side by side.

2. General Overview: Subject, Form, and Color

The basic object-label information is followed by a general overview of the

subject matter and composition of the work. Generally, a coherent description
should provide visual information in a sequence, allowing a blind person to
assemble, piece by piece, an image of a highly complex work of art. First
describe the explicit subject, that is, what is represented in the work. For
example, "This painting features a recycled Savarin coffee can filled with
about eighteen paintbrushes." Next describe the composition and give an
overall impression of the work. Include in this description the color tones and
the mood or atmosphere. Many people who have lost their sight have a visual
memory of colors. In the passage below, a general description of Masaccio's
fresco The Expulsion from Eden (c. 1425) introduces the basic scene.

We see two nudes, a man and a woman, in obvious emotional distress,

walking from the center of the painting to the right across a bleak brown
landscape free of any vegetation. Above them, we see an angel wearing
bright-red robes, carrying a sword, hurrying them on their way. They are
leaving Paradise , as the title suggests. Within the barely suggested
gate on the left, we see rays of light, which represent the presence of
the Lord. These light rays resemble straight lines that are pulled
together at one end, as they would be in a broom. The man and the
woman are being banished from Paradise . The warm peach flesh tones
of their bodies contrast with the blue sky.
-AEB and Fredericka Foster Shapiro, Fifteenth-Century Italian Art

3. Orient the Viewer with Directions

Specific and concrete information is required to indicate the location of

objects or figures in a work of art. A useful directional method is to refer to
the positions of the numbers on a clock. Most blind people are familiar with
this method of providing direction. For example, in referring to a person's
face, you would describe the mouth as being at six o'clock. Also, when
describing a figure depicted in a work of art, remember that the image is the
equivalent of a mirror image. Right and left can be very ambiguous terms
unless they are qualified. Accordingly, you should describe the figure
according to its right or left, and always qualify this description. Refer to the
viewer's orientation to right and left, as well. For example, "The woman's
right hand, which is on your left, holds a small goblet."

4. Describe the Importance of the Technique or Medium

Sometimes, there is an important relationship between the implicit content

and the technique or medium employed to make the work. Detailed
information on these topics enables a blind viewer to understand the ways in
which meaning, style, or both are generated from the materials. Technique
and medium are functions of each other, and, typically, discussion of one
must include the other. Because this kind of information can be very
technical, you may want to ask blind viewers how interested they are in this
subject. The first passage below describes the impact of the oil-painting
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technique on the art of the northern Renaissance. The second passage, in a

discussion of King Khafra and Horus (2550 B.C.E.), conveys relevant
information on the stone.

In the fifteenth century, artists such as Robert Campin and Jan van Eyck
realized the advantages of the oil-painting medium. With oil paint,
colored pigment is suspended in a viscous oil medium that is slow to dry.
Because the oil paint is slow to dry, it is easily manipulated by the brush
on a wood panel or canvas surface. This flexibility enables the artist to
blend colors easily. And by the subtle blending of colors, the painter is
able to model forms, and suggest light and shadow. The illusion of light
and shadow makes the forms appear more three-dimensional. As a result
of this technique, fifteenth-century artists rendered the natural volumes
of a cheek or an arm in a more convincing manner than their
predecessors.
-AEB and Toby Falk, The Renaissance Outside of Italy

In this statue, the pharaoh is seated on a throne. The statue is carved in

an extremely hard, dense stone called gneiss. The Egyptians sought out
this stone in quarries along the desert valleys, where they also collected
many other unusual and beautiful stones. To the touch, the stone feels
extremely smooth and cool. It is blackish-gray, with streaks and strands
of white. And so the surface does not really look like flesh. After it is
carved, the surface is given a polish so that it reflects a soft light. The
soft gleam and the unusual coloration give this statue a restrained, but
palpable, sense of light.
-AEB and Marsha Hill, The Art of Ancient Egypt

5. Focus on the Style

When we talk about the style of a work of art, we are referring to the
features that identify a work as being by a particular artist or school, or of a
movement, period, or geographical region. Style is the cumulative result of
many characteristics, including brushwork, use of tone and color, choice of
different motifs, and the treatment of the subject. After the basic information
about subject, composition, and mediums have been conveyed, the verbal
description can focus on how these many elements contribute to the whole.
In a tour that includes several works of art, comparisons are an effective way
of making stylistic features tangible. In the following passage, the style of a
Roman sculpture, Augustus of Primaporta (c. 20 B.C.E.), is compared to that
of an earlier Greek work, Polykleitos' Spear Bearer (c. 450-440 B.C.E.).

The head of Augustus combines an idealizing tendency in the style of

Greek prototypes with realistic features of the emperor. The arrangement
of Augustus' hair reflects the influence of Polykleitos' Spear Bearer. For,
like the hair of the Spear Bearer, Augustus' hair is short and curly. The
curls on both statues do not stand up from the head. They lie flat like a
close-fitting cap. Augustus' hair differs from that of the Spear Bearer in
that the hair is slightly longer, and it is combed both forward and
backward, rather than simply being combed forward. The overall effect of
the arrangement of Augustus' hair is orderly but at the same time
dynamic. The orderliness of the hair seems to indicate that it has been
intentionally idealized in the Primaporta portrait and in other portraits of
Augustus, which all exhibit the same hair treatment.
-AEB and Frances Van Keuren, Etruscan and Roman Art
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6. Use Specific Words

Clear and precise language is crucial to any good description. In describing

visual art to a blind audience, you must be careful to avoid ambiguous and
figurative language. The blind listener can take words very literally. For
instance, saying "light falls on an object" has no meaning for the congenitally
blind individual. In general, you should not make assumptions about the
viewer's knowledge of any aspect of art making. Accordingly, art terms and
pictorial conventions such as perspective, focal point, picture plane,
foreground, and background should always be defined for your audience.
Typically, it is useful to introduce the definition or concept when the
discussion turns to that aspect of the work of art. In the passage below, a
discussion of Perugino's fresco Christ Delivering the Keys of the Kingdom to
St. Peter (1481-83) introduces the convention of one-point perspective. Notice
how an understanding of this pictorial formula allows the blind viewer to
grasp the spatial dynamic of this painting, which is one of its most
astonishing features.

The scene shows Christ and Peter placed in the center foreground, with
disciples and contemporary citizens arranged in rows on either side of
them. In a brilliant piece of stagecraft, Perugino directs the spectator to
focus on the heart of the painting-the transferring of the keys. Perugino
does this by skillfully exploiting the pictorial convention of one-point
perspective. Let's recall the definition of one-point perspective, which is
a way of projecting an illusion of the three-dimensional world onto a
two-dimensional surface. In this formula for rendering spatial recession,
all parallel lines appear to converge at a single point on the horizon,
called the vanishing point. Perugino has used this system both to create
a sense of spatial recession and to focus our attention on a single point.
Generally, compositions of large assemblies filled with many donors and
friends are confusing or boring. Perugino, however, solved this problem
when he set the event in an enormous square or piazza. Jesus is
presenting the large gold key to the kneeling Peter. In the space
between the two figures, a silver key hangs from the same chain at the
very center of the composition. The perspective lines of the pavement,
comprising the brickwork design, lead the spectator's eyes into the
distance, converging at the door of the centrally placed temple. And
immediately below the temple door is Christ delivering the keys to St.
Peter. The composition is so skillfully designed that our eyes follow
movement in several directions. We follow activity laterally on the
horizontal, and upward on the vertical, as well as diagonally into the
picture plane. While we explore all the parts of the fresco, Perugino
always brings our eyes back to the main event in the center.
-Fredericka Foster Shapiro, Fifteenth-Century Italian Art

7. Provide Vivid Details

After the general idea of the work is conveyed, the description should be
more vivid and particularized. Describe pertinent details, and focus on
different parts of the work. Remember that the listener is depending on you
to give an accurate description. Try to use objective references rather than
ones that might sway a blind person's point of view. Give enough information
so that listeners can form an image in their minds, and come to their own
opinions and conclusions about a work of art. The following passage describes
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Jean-Honoré Fragonard's The Swing (1766). Notice how the vivid description
brings the scene to life.

The scene is set in a lush, overgrown garden. Billowing clouds of leaves

on the twisted branches of ancient trees almost overwhelm the
composition. Greens and blues lit by golden sunlight fill the canvas. The
girl is dressed in a pink silk confection. She sits on a very plush swing,
which has a gilded wooden seat upholstered in red velvet. One of her
tiny feet kicks off a small, pink mule, sending it flying into midair. This
gesture reveals her plump legs covered in white stockings, which are
fastened by a pink garter. Only the young man, lying in the undergrowth
with a rapturous expression on his face, can see any more. Perhaps she
has kicked her shoe into the bushes as an excuse to join the young man.
The only other witnesses to the scene are statues. A cherub crouches on
the pedestal behind the young man. He holds a finger to his lips, urging
two smaller stone putti to keep their silence about the young man's
presence. The smaller putti nestle among the bushes underneath the
swinging mistress.
-AEB and Leslie Streitweiser, The Art of the Eighteenth Century

8. Indicate Where the Curators Have Installed a Work

Generally, a work's placement in an art institution reveals important

information about its meaning, as well as its relationship to other works in
the collection. Tell the blind viewer where the work is located in the
institution. Include in your discussion a description of the gallery or sculpture
garden where the work is installed, and mention the surrounding artworks.
Describe how the work under discussion relates to these other works, as well
as to the viewer and the surrounding space. For example, the work may
confront the viewer or it may be installed off to the side. The passage below
describes the location of Auguste Rodin's sculpture St. John the Baptist
(1878-80) in the Museum of Modern Art, New York .

St. John is located on the second floor of the museum. When you get off
the escalator, the sculpture is about twenty feet to your left. St. John
stands alone, and he is just to the right of the entrance to the sculpture
and painting galleries. His right arm, on our left, points up to Heaven.
However, because of the sculpture's placement in the museum, St. John
also beckons the visitor into the galleries to see the permanent
collection.
-Francesca Rosenberg, Museum of Modern Art , New York

9. Refer to Other Senses as Analogues for Vision

Try to translate a visual experience into another sense. Although blind

viewers are without sight, their other senses, such as touch or hearing,
enable them to construct highly detailed impressions of a work of visual art.
For instance, refer to the sense of touch when describing the surface of a
sculpture. A comparison between the rough-hewn texture of Auguste Rodin's
Balzac (1892-97) and the glasslike finish of Constantin Brancusi's Bird in
Space (c. 1927) can be very instructive. Or compare a Japanese tea-ceremony
jar, with its irregular shape and unfinished surface, with a highly refined
Chinese white-porcelain statuette from the eighteenth century. In both of
these ceramic works, the degree of surface refinement is an integral part of
the work's formal value, as well as of its meaning. There are many ways to
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utilize senses other than sight when describing a work of art, and any
discussion of materials is rich with possibilities. The following passage draws
upon the sense of hearing to experience the grandeur and sensual richness of
Annibale Carracci's ceiling decoration (1597-1601) for the Palazzo Farnese, in
Rome.

Imagine being in a very large room with superb sound speakers placed
just below the ceiling. The sound from the speakers is exactly what you
might hear in a garden. Imagine hearing plants rustling in the wind, birds
singing, and the splashing water of the fountains. In addition to these
natural sounds, you hear snatches of conversations and the cheerful
laughter of children playing. Imagine these sounds coming from many
different directions. These outdoor sounds are so faithfully reproduced
that you feel as though an outdoor garden is directly above you. And yet,
you know you are in a room. The temperature is that of a room. And the
air within these four walls is still. There is no breeze. And yet, you are
astonished. This evocation of nature is similar to the experience of
seeing a seventeenth-century ceiling painting. Reality and illusion
artfully merge.
-AEB and Paula Gerson with Virginia Hooper, Baroque Art in the
Seventeenth Century

10. Explain Intangible Concepts with Analogies

Certain kinds of visual phenomena, such as shadows or clouds, may be

difficult to describe objectively. In the case of congenitally blind or early-blind
individuals with no visual memory, it may be impossible to convey a sighted
person's visual experience of certain kinds of phenomena. However, a well-
chosen analogy can be just as effective. To construct a helpful analogy,
choose objects or experiences from everyone's common experience. In a
description of Pablo Picasso's Cubist painting Girl with a Mandolin (Fanny
Tellier) (1910), you might compare the image of the figure to a shattered
wine bottle whose fragments have been reassembled in different positions. In
the passage below, two very effective analogies are used to explain the
concept of light and shadow.

Use of light and shadow in a painting can be explained by referring to

the feeling one has when sitting in front of a window on a sunny day.
The parts of the face and body that feel the warmth are said to be in the
light. Those parts not being warmed by the sun are said to be in shade
or shadow. To understand the concept of a cast shadow, imagine
yourself standing in the kind of shower where the water comes out in a
fairly narrow spray. As you stand in front of this spray, the front of your
body gets wet, but not your back. If the water were a light source, the
front of your body would be highlighted, and the back would be in
shadow. Additionally, because the front of your body blocks the water,
there would be a spot on the shower floor behind you where water does
not fall. If the water were a light source, your body would block the flow
of light, and the light would not reach the area of the shower floor
behind you. The dark area behind you is called a cast shadow.
-AEB and Paula Gerson, The Building Blocks of Art

11. Encourage Understanding through Reenactment

Sometimes, no matter how precisely you describe the physical posture of a

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figure depicted in a painting or sculpture, the image that you see is not
transmitted to the viewer. In these cases, you may want to give instructions
that will allow the blind person to mimic the depicted figure's pose. Since
everyone is aware of his or her own body, this activity provides a concrete
way of understanding difficult poses depicted in the painting. Additionally, by
assuming the pose, the blind viewer can directly perceive important formal
characteristics of the work, such as symmetry or asymmetry; open or closed
forms; implied action or repose; smooth, flowing lines or angular ones; and
the degree of engagement with the viewer. The following passage gives
instructions on assuming the action-packed pose of Gianlorenzo Bernini's
sculpture David (1623). As you may recall, David is shown in the split second
before he will begin the violent pivoting motion that will release the stone
that kills the giant Goliath.

Let's try to stand the same way David is standing. The implied action of
this form will become apparent. Stand up to do this. Place your feet
about two feet apart. Your right leg is forward. Your left leg is two feet
diagonally behind you. Stand with your weight tilted slightly forward.
Now pivot at the waist about forty-five degrees to your right. Your
weight should still rest on both feet. Put your arms down in front of you.
Pretend that you are holding a one-foot-long rubber band. Each hand
holds one end. This large rubber band is David's slingshot. Now keep
your right foot solidly on the floor, but allow your left heel to rise. Bend
slightly forward, and twist your upper torso to the right. Twist it far
enough so that your left shoulder is aligned over your right knee. You are
looking over your left shoulder. Now, you are standing the way David is
standing. This is the moment before the slingshot's missile flies out at
Goliath. Another way to understand this pose is to imagine yourself
heaving a heavy weight. If you are standing, you would swing the weight
back in order to gain momentum. Then, you would reverse direction and
toss the weight forward. David is portrayed in the moment before you
would reverse direction and toss the weight forward.
-AEB and Paula Gerson with Virginia Hooper, Baroque Art in the
Seventeenth Century

12. Provide Information on the Historical and Social Context

As in any museum tour or art history lesson, you should provide information
on the historical and social context of the works of art. Many visual artifacts,
particularly those from non-European cultures, have ritualistic functions.
Understanding these functions is an integral aspect of understanding the work
itself. In some cultures, the visual artifacts were made to be seen in a
specific kind of light. For example, early Japanese Buddhist sculptures were
meant to be viewed in candlelit shrines, where the soft light would have
reflected off the shiny gold-covered surface of the back-pieces. By describing
this sacred setting, you provide the blind viewer with a sense of how the work
functioned in the lives of the people who saw it on a daily basis. In other
cultures, music accompanied the rituals in which the visual artifacts were
used, and you may want to offer examples of this music, such as medieval
plainsong or tribal drum rhythms. In the passage below, the cultural function
of an antelope headdress, called a Chi Wara, used by the Bamana people of
Mali, is discussed.

For the Bamana, art is an integral part of everyday life and society. An

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example of this is the role of the Chi Wara. In Bamana, chi means
"work," and wara means "wild animal." While chi wara literally means the
laboring beast, the phrase has other meanings in Bamana culture. For
example, the phrase may refer to a mythical creature. It may also refer
to a man's association or a headdress worn by the Bamana people. Chi
Wara is the name of a mythical creature thought to be half antelope and
half-man. According to Bamana cultural tradition, the mythical Chi Wara
possessed the secret of agriculture and passed this knowledge on to
humans. Chi Wara is also the name of the young men's association
concerned with farming and the development of agricultural skills. Every
season, neighboring villages have a hoeing contest. The winner from
each village earns the right to dance during the agricultural festival while
wearing one of the Chi Wara headdresses. These wooden headdresses,
sculpted in the form of an antelope, are attached to a cap made of
basket material. The Chi Wara headdresses always appear at the
agricultural festivals in pairs of male and female. Male dancers, who
alone can earn the right to dance with them, wear both types of Chi
Wara headdresses.
-AEB and Teri Sowell, The Native Arts of Africa, the South Pacific, and
the Americas

13. Incorporate Sound in Creative Ways

In addition to reconstructing an historical or cultural setting, sound can serve

an interpretive purpose. For instance, sound can be used as an auditory
analogue for a work of visual art. In Art History Through Touch and Sound, an
original electronic musical composition was created to explore Peter Paul
Rubens' painting The Gathering of the Manna (c. 1625-27). This soundscape
evokes the dramatically charged scene of Moses and his people gathering
food in the desert. In another example, a festive party atmosphere and the
tinkling sounds of silver and crystal set the mood for Jan De Heem's
sumptuous vanitas painting Still Life with Parrots (late 1640s).

Another way to use sound creatively is to provide on-site recordings of

architectural spaces. For instance, in Art History Through Touch and Sound,
the listener hears the bustling sounds of St. Peter's piazza, in Rome . By
imaginatively walking through the arms of the oval colonnade and hearing the
echoes of footfalls, the listener acquires a sense of the spatial dynamics of
Gianlorenzo Bernini's remarkable outdoor space.

14. Allow People to Touch Artworks

Providing an opportunity to touch three-dimensional works gives visitors who

are blind or visually impaired an immediate, personal experience with an
original work of art. Direct touch is the best way to explore an object. For
conservation reasons, however, some museums require people to wear thin
gloves made of cotton or plastic. An informal poll at the Museum of Modern
Art , New York , indicated that most people prefer plastic to cotton because
the texture and temperature of the work's material can be felt.

15. Alternative Touchable Materials

When it is not possible to touch original works of art, alternative touchable

materials can be provided. In some instances, alternative materials can
provide a fuller and more complete understanding of a work because they can
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be touched without gloves. These auxiliary aids include three-dimensional

reproductions; samples of art-making materials such as marble, bronze, clay,
and canvas; examples of the tools used in various media, such as
paintbrushes, chisels, and hammers; and replicas of the objects depicted in
the artwork. Additionally, it is helpful to have a range of information available
on the unique characteristics of the materials and the way in which the
medium dictates the form.

16. Tactile Illustrations of Artworks

Most museum visitors want as much information as possible. Tactile diagrams

are a very effective way of making visual art accessible. These diagrams are
tactile illustrations of artworks, and they are essentially relief images. These
kinds of black-and-white relief images are schematic diagrams, and they do
not represent the actual object in every detail. Tactile diagrams are always
used in conjunction with a verbal narrative that guides the person through the
diagram, and provides additional descriptive and historical information. Art
Education for the Blind uses a lexicon of seven standardized tactile patterns,
as well as five standardized lines and five informational icons.

Adapted from Making Visual Art Accessible to People Who Are Blind and Visually
Impaired, © 1996 Art Education for the Blind

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