Download Audio Description

Imagine trying to enjoy a TV show, movie, or live performance, but not being able to see it. It would be challenging to gain a complete understanding of what is happening. You would most likely miss crucial information that is expressed visually through gestures, character actions, or scenery, rather than through audio. There is an exorbitant amount of detail that can be conveyed in a single image.

Just as captions and transcripts make video accessible for those who are Deaf or hard of hearing, audio description does the same for those who are blind or visually impaired. Both services fall under the same category of accessibility, with a shared overarching goal of making video equally accessible for all individuals.

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What do YOU do for audio description? Do you provide services professionally? Are you a non-profit which has been providing description for local theaters for years? An independent? A theatre or museum which provides description? We'd like to hear from you. Send us a write-up about your work, and we'll consider it for publication here! Use the Webmaster link at the bottom of the page.

If you have the opportunity to promote audio description locally to an organization you belong to or are asked to speak to, we have developed a ONE PAGE document that you can customize as necessary for your area. It explains briefly what description opportunities are available: live theatre, TV, DVDs, and internet streaming. It then points readers to our site to learn more (like specifically what shows, movies, or TV series have description). Download your own copy for customization by right-clicking the following link: Audio Description: What's Available?

The Audio Description Project's website collects and provides information on audio description in all its forms: live theatre, television, movies, DVDs, streaming services, and more. Started in 2002 by AD International, funding and direction for this website has come from the American Council of the Blind's Audio Description Project since 2009. Read more about this site...

Audio Description (AD) is the descriptive narration of key visual elements of live theatre, television, movies, and other media to enhance their enjoyment by consumers who are blind or have low vision. AD is the insertion of audio explanations and descriptions of the settings, characters, and action taking place in such media, when such information about these visual elements is not offered in the regular audio presentation. Read more about audio description...

Based on his doctoral thesis and teaching audio description around the world, ADP Project Founder and Senior Consultant Dr. Joel Snyder's book, The Visual Made Verbal: A Comprehensive Training Manual and Guide to the History and Applications of Audio Description, is available in print (English, Spanish, Italian, Portuguese, Polish, Chinese, and Russian), for Kindle, on Bookshare, and in braille and as an audio book from NLS libraries. Read more details about Dr. Snyder's book.

Dedicated organizations around the world facilitate the offering of audio description for movies, videos, live theatre, and television. This website attempts to expose their fine work to as many interested viewers as possible. Thank you for visiting!

Credit for the "invention" of audio description in 1981 generally goes to the late Dr Margaret Pfanstiehl and her late husband Cody, although in independent efforts a man named Chet Avery proposed the concept in the late 60s, and Gregory Frazier worked on the idea on the 1970s. In 1990, the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences awarded Margaret an Emmy for her "leadership and persistence in the development of television for the visually impaired." In 2009, Margaret received the Excellence in Accessibility Leadership Award at the LEAD Conference at the Kennedy Center for her lifetime commitment and enduring advocacy on behalf of audio description and other forms of information access for the visually impaired community. Over the years, the Pfanstiehls personally trained hundreds of audio describers around the world. Since then, many of those trained describers have gone on to train other audio describers.

Audio Description Solutions has a very nice timeline of thehistory of audio description, so we won't duplicate it here. Also, Dr. Joel Snyder's book, The Visual Made Verbal: A Comprehensive Training Manual and Guide to the History and Applications of Audio Description covers the history of AD in great detail, and he has offered us thisexcerpt from his book on the history of AD.

Today, many large cities have organizations with trained audio describers who offer their services for free or fee to local theatre groups and others. Most of the organizations are setup as non-profits. There are also professional audio description organizations (such as WBGH Media Group) who do description primarily for movies. You can find both types of organizations listed on our AD Services web page.

First, you need to find out if there is a local or national organization which trains and uses audio describers. Consult ourTraining/Education page, or possibly our AD Services web page. Keep in mind that the term "audio describer" is a general term for people who write audio description scripts and may VOICE them. Anyone can be trained to write scripts, though your knowledge and command of English (or your local language) will be important. If you also want to voice audio description, then what your reading voice sounds like is important. Do you have an accent? Do you enunciate well? Do you stumble or stutter? Remember: an audio describer's voice should never be distracting from the performance being described, so a hiring organization will be looking for people with pleasant voices and good command of the language.

The intent of this Success Criterion is to provide people who are blind or visually impaired access to the visual information in a synchronized media presentation. The audio description augments the audio portion of the presentation with the information needed when the video portion is not available. During existing pauses in dialogue, audio description provides information about actions, characters, scene changes, and on-screen text that are important and are not described or spoken in the main sound track.

1.2.3, 1.2.5, and 1.2.8 overlap somewhat with each other. This is to give the author some choice at the minimum conformance level, and to provide additional requirements at higher levels. At Level A in Success Criterion 1.2.3, authors do have the choice of providing either an audio description or a full text alternative. If they wish to conform at Level AA, under Success Criterion 1.2.5 authors must provide an audio description - a requirement already met if they chose that alternative for 1.2.3, otherwise an additional requirement. At Level AAA under Success Criterion 1.2.8 they must provide an extended text description. This is an additional requirement if both 1.2.3 and 1.2.5 were met by providing an audio description only. If 1.2.3 was met, however, by providing a text description, and the 1.2.5 requirement for an audio description was met, then 1.2.8 does not add new requirements.

A broadcast delay is a short (usually automated) delay, for example used in order to give the broadcaster time to cue or censor the audio (or video) feed, but not sufficient to allow significant editing.

A media alternative for text is provided for those who benefit from alternate representations of text. Media alternatives for text may be audio-only, video-only (including sign-language video), or audio-video.

Audio description is audio-narrated descriptions of a television program's key visual elements. These descriptions are inserted into natural pauses in the program's dialogue. Audio description makes TV programming more accessible to individuals who are blind or visually impaired.

In 2020, the FCC announced expanded audio description requirements. Audio description is required for an additional 10 designated market areas (DMAs) each year for the next four years. That is, the audio description requirements extended to DMAs 81 through 90 on January 1, 2023, and to DMAs 91 through 100 on January 1, 2024.

FCC rules require local TV station affiliates of ABC, CBS, Fox, and NBC located in the top 90 TV markets to provide 87.5 hours per calendar quarter (about 7 hours per week) of audio-described programming, of which 50 hours must be prime time and/or children's programming and 37.5 hours may be any type of programming shown between 6:00 a.m. and midnight.

Subscription TV systems (offered over cable, satellite or the telephone network) with 50,000 or more subscribers must provide 87.5 hours per calendar quarter (about 7 hours per week) of audio-described programming on the top five most-watched non-broadcast networks, of which 50 hours must be prime time and/or children's programming and 37.5 hours may be any type of programming shown between 6:00 a.m. and midnight.

Broadcast TV stations and subscription TV systems must also pass through audio description received with their programs unless the secondary audio stream is being used for another purpose related to the programming.

Audio description is provided through the TV or set-top box "secondary audio" feature, which some TV controls identify as "SAP" or "secondary audio program." The secondary audio may also be identified as a language feature, such as "Spanish" or "SPA," because it is also used to provide Spanish or other language translations of English language TV programs. Depending upon the program being viewed when listening to the secondary audio, you may hear the primary audio with audio description, Spanish or other language translation, a duplicate of the primary audio, or silence. ff782bc1db