Sound matters while enjoying movies; a soundscape study of visually impaired people

Abstract

While conducting focus group discussions about shopping malls with visually impaired people from previous studies, it was inadvertently known that these people also like watching movies. A soundscape survey with a closed-ended questionnaire constructed from semantic attributes raised during the discussion was used to collect data about how they enjoyed the film. One ordinary person accompanied each visually impaired person. The companion guided them from the cinema gate to the chair and to act as storytellers. Seventy data from two films were raised in the study and extracted using Promax-rotated principal component analysis because there was an assumption that these attributes were interrelated. It brings up three main dimensions of soundscape - namely, pleasure, storyline, and sound dynamic. The soundscape dimension of pleasure is related to the attributes of comfort, clear sound, and interesting storylines. The soundscape dimension of storylines is related to the attributes of fun, clear storylines, and enlightening storylines. Meanwhile, the soundscape dimension of sound dynamic is connected to fun, loud sounds, and entertaining storylines. The extraction using Promax rotation shows a substantial correlation between pleasure, storyline, and sound dynamic.