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This pilot project, a collaboration between The American University in Cairo's Rare Books and Special Collections Library and Access Hound, shares mostly auto-generated Audio Description using the Access Hound Guidedogs.
This technique was applied to make 10 images more accessible for people who are blind or who have low-vision, from photographs sampled from the AUC Social Research Center Ethnographic Survey of Nubia Photograph Collection.
DESCRIBING: A vertical black-and-white photograph.
SYNOPSIS: A person carrying a large round jug slung over their back is bent at the waist, leaning toward an ornate and closed doorway. The doorway is centered in a sunlit courtyard. A group of children is gathered nearby. They are sitting on the ground, with some looking at the water carrier and some staring instead at the photographer taking this image.
IN-DEPTH DESCRIPTION: The barefoot person wears a head cloth and loose clothing, draping at the knees. The jug is dark in color, round, and has stubby legs. Its girth is bigger than the person's torso. The doorway is decorated with a pattern of geometric shapes, which each has a star-like center radiating out six symmetrical rays. To the left of the person and the door is an oversized throne-like chair, next to a long bench with a high back. To the right of the person and the doorway is another bench, matching the one on the other side. The doorway is a part of a much larger and highly decorative stone wall that is showing signs of deterioration and aging. For examples, some of its decorative features have peeled off, and the furniture appears covered with dust. Eight children are in the frame of the photograph, with an adult at the front of the group, also seated on the ground but facing the kids, who are mostly facing toward the doorway. They are all seated around a massive stone pillar in the room. It is the only pillar in the image. Half of the children are wearing head coverings. Above this doorway, a small window is encased with metal lattice and surrounded by ornate stonework. The courtyard floor appears cracked and uneven, contributing to the sense of age and enduring use. Light enters the scene from above, illuminating the center of the courtyard while leaving the edges in softer shadow, emphasizing the contrast between the seated children and the water carrier.
DESCRIBING: A vertical black-and-white photograph.
SYNOPSIS: A large and decorative wooden doorway is open, showing both the inside and outside of an entrance to a Nubian house. Two people are standing on the side of the door that is facing the camera, one on each side of the opening. A third person, shown only by an arm, is reaching from behind the wall to push the door open.
IN-DEPTH DESCRIPTION:
A tall and rectangular wooden door is open, set within a thick, stucco wall. The door has six panels cut into the wood. They look like octagonal stop signs that have been squeezed together, three on top, three on the bottom. Above this entryway, the stucco has been cut to create holes in the wall that look like teardrops. The doorway is framed with a repeating pattern of diamond shapes, topped by a row of small tree-like sketches. The people in the image are underexposed, making features and expressions difficult to discern. These appear to be children. There is no foreground in the image, pressing the doorway to the front of the frame. Beyond the structure, as can be seen through the crack in the doorway, is an expansive and mostly featureless landscape, with sand covering the ground and a dark wall in the distance.
DESCRIBING: A square black-and-white photograph.
SYNOPSIS: Three children are playing in a sandy courtyard. Two are sitting on the ground facing each other, with their arms and legs outstretched, touching each other's sandaled feet and holding their arms out to create a hurdle of sorts. The third child is shown in mid-air, leaping over them. The background is a sunlit and sandy village home, composed of multiple single-story structures, including a doorway, where a woman is standing on a porch and watching the kids play.
IN-DEPTH DESCRIPTION:
The three children wear loose, striped garments. The low-slung and mud-brick home in the background has a flat roof lined by wooden beams that are poking out from the edges of the building. The woman, wearing a head covering and a long dress, holds a large basket. All of the doors and windows of the home are covered, protecting the inside of the place from the intense sun.
DESCRIBING: A horizontal black-and-white photograph.
SYNOPSIS: The image features two almost-identical birds, sculpted in shallow relief, facing one another on a wall of a home. The birds have elongated necks, small round heads, and slender bodies. Each stands atop a square, inscribed with an X. Intricate geometric patterns frame the scene.
IN-DEPTH DESCRIPTION:
The two avian figures, carved in profile with long necks and rounded torsos, have straight legs bent sharply at the knee. They are perched atop square pedestals, marked with a diagonal pattern. The birds' bodies display mottled markings, providing contrast against the smoother, flat background. Framing the scene, the edges are delineated by rows of alternating triangles, while other parts of the borders incorporate dots and hatching for added texture. The uniformity and flattened perspective suggest this is a work from a decorative tradition, where form and pattern are emphasized.
DESCRIBING: A square black-and-white photograph.
SYNOPSIS: A man in a turban and a long white robe bends over to inspect one of several large, patterned jars lined up against a wall. Above the waist-high vessels, woven baskets with bold circular designs hang in a row on the wall. In the foreground, a textured mat with alternating patterns is spread out on the floor.
IN-DEPTH DESCRIPTION: Five bulbous jars stand shoulder-to-shoulder at the base of a plain wall. Each jar is decorated with painted white grid patterns that are irregular, like they were hand-drawn. But they also are consistent in scope, all being five rows deep and either two or three columns wide. Immediately above them, hanging on the wall, are five round and flat baskets with concentric decorative patterns, evenly spaced in a horizontal line. Near the jars on the viewer's left, a smaller, squat jug is in the shadows. The man examining the objects is reaching inside the top of one vessel, with his sandaled feet partially visible and firmly standing on a woven mat.
DESCRIBING: A square black-and-white photograph.
SYNOPSIS: A woman in a loose-fitting robe and head covering demonstrates the art of spinning with a drop spindle. She is doing the work outdoors, in a sandy courtyard, seated on a mat, with a single-story building behind her deep in the background. She focuses her eyes down, on the tool, and shows the precise posture and hand positioning required for this centuries-old craft.
IN-DEPTH DESCRIPTION: The dark-skinned woman sits upright but also in a relaxed posture, with her knees pulled in to her chest. She holds a spindle with a whorl full of dark thread, with the pointed end on the mat below her. Her left hand pinches freshly spun fiber, while her right deftly manages the spindle’s movement. Her long robe, headscarf, and thick shawl are all in dark tones suited to the dusty, sun-drenched environment. The mat beneath her shows repeating patterns.
DESCRIBING: A horizontal black-and-white photograph.
SYNOPSIS: A farmer guides a wooden plow behind two oxen as they work through dry, sandy soil. The farmer, wearing a robe and head covering, uses two long wooden sticks to steer the plow. Large leafy trees and desert hills line the horizon in the background.
IN-DEPTH DESCRIPTION: The man — wearing a dark, loose, and knee-length robe and a white turban — stands behind a rustic wooden plow. He grips two long poles that attach to the plow, his arms stretched wide for balance and control. The rough-hewn plow, powered by the oxen, turns over the sandy earth. The sturdy oxen are dark in color, with prominent horns curving forward, and they lean into the motion, with their heads lowered. Large desert shrubs and clusters of palm trees dot the background, which reaches a range of rocky hills in the distance.
DESCRIBING: A horizontal black-and-white photograph.
SYNOPSIS: Three people ride in a wooden sailboat, floating on calm water. The boat is pointed to the viewer's left. Its sails are down. The people are seated in the stern, toward the back of the boat, wearing loose-fitting robes and head coverings. Peeling paint on the hull gives the boat a well-worn appearance.
IN-DEPTH DESCRIPTION: The sailors are close to each other but not sitting side by side. Their hands are in their laps, and none of them is actively handling the vessel, either, suggesting a moment of floating without purpose. The bright background shows little detail of the landscape, and the faces of the people on the boat are dark, overexposed, and far enough away to be difficult to discern.
DESCRIBING: A square black-and-white photograph.
SYNOPSIS: A half-dozen people — mostly veiled and dressed alike, in all black, from head to toe — spread out across a sandy flat area, each examining different clusters of desert brush. The setting is remote, dry, and visually dominated by cliffs. The bright background contrasts sharply with the black robes, creating stark silhouettes.
IN-DEPTH DESCRIPTION: Five of the six people gathering material from the bushes in this image are women, who are unrecognizable as individuals because of their full coverage in black robes, including coverage of their faces. The sixth person, in white or light-colored garments, has their back to the camera. That person is standing and looking down at one of the women in the black robes. From this distance, it's hard to tell who that person is. It might be a child. But it also could be a supervisor of the operations. Cliffs fill the background, rising in ragged lines and bands, while the lower half of the image is a featureless white desert interrupted only by dry brush and the bent-over figures working in the bushes.
DESCRIBING: A horizontal black-and-white photograph.
SYNOPSIS: A person in loose-fitting clothing stands centered in a doorway, looking outward, from a sunlit wall of a large building. Shadows are sharp, suggesting strong sunlight. To the viewer's right, a scruffy dog walks across the empty sandy ground in front of the building.
IN-DEPTH DESCRIPTION: A broad, pale wall stretches the width of the image, dominating the frame. In the center, a rectangular doorway breaks the monotony. Surrounding the doorway and extending above it are rows of carved diamond and circular shapes, arranged symmetrically. Atop the wall, small sculpted elements create a repeating decorative border. Standing in the central doorway is a single adult wearing a long, light-colored robe that covers their form from neck to feet; their face is mostly shadowed. Behind them is a glimpse of the building’s inner courtyard, repeating the geometric motifs seen on the exterior. The coarse texture of the wall contrasts with the smooth, harsh ground in front. The scruffy dog's head is lowered and tail dangling as it walks past.