All about audio description

One question that I often get asked is this one: How does a blind person follow a movie? That is, how can they follow what is going on in a movie when there is no talking or other noise to tell them what's happening? Enter the world of audio description.

Up until about a decade ago, audio descriptive movies or audio descriptions were novelties to us or rather a luxury but today, it is becoming more and more popular. What is meant by audio descriptions or audio descriptive movies? Very easy. More and more movies, DVDs, and videos are now being produced to include audio descriptions and this means that audio descriptions are given for those scenes where there is no audible sound. This is most helpful to blind persons who are unable to see what's going on. So for example, in a movie, if someone is walking along and there is only the sound of their shoes, audio description would be provided to tell the blind person what's included in the scene as the person is walking.

I am going to leave you with an url to check out. One that belongs to one of the top audio descriptive producers in the world. Visit www.wgbh.org.

I'm Donna J. Jodhan your friendly accessibility advocate wishing you a terrific day and encouraging you to go out there and tell the rest of the world about audio descriptions and audio descriptive videos etc.