Audio description as a tool for supporting emotion processing in autistic children: Results of an eye-tracking study on randomised Polish participants aged 5–12

Audio description (AD) is a pre-recorded verbal commentary that describes visual – and occasionally ambiguous auditory - elements of audiovisual (AV) cultural products. While AD is primarily designed for audiences with visual impairments, its potential benefits for other populations have recently attracted scholarly attention. This study examines the use of AD for children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD), exploring how it may enhance their information processing by delivering content through both visual and auditory channels. The study involved 33 Polish children with ASD and 38 typically developing controls, aged 5 to 12. For this research, AD tracks were created in two styles - emotionally neutral and emotionally expressive – for three short YouTube videos that originally contained no dialogue. Each child viewed all three videos: one without AD, one with neutral AD, and one with emotionally expressive AD. Comprehension was assessed through semi-structured questionnaires, and participants’ eye movements were recorded using an eye-tracker. Emotionally expressive AD significantly improved children’s comprehension of the videos, including their ability to recognize emotions and understand cause-and-effect relationships. This effect was especially pronounced in children with ASD. The findings suggest that supplementing AV materials with AD tracks may offer substantial benefits, particularly in supporting children with autism.