Ice Age 4 Audio Description

[Bertoldo Beyer]

Firstyou (the "People" in the award title) selected the semi-finalists; now it's time to pick the best. So "People," cast your votes by August 4 to select the finalist! Read the list of Finalists, which includes clips and the voting link. (Posted Jul 20)

On July 10, at the ACB Annual Conference in Jacksonville, FL, we announced the winners of the annual Audio Description Project Achievement Awards. Read the complete list of award winners! You can also watch the presentation on YouTube. Congrats to all the winners, and thanks for your contributions to audio description. (Posted July 10)

Perhaps Brandon Cole's legacy as an award-winning accessibility consultant and advocate is best embodied in his handle, @superblindman. He was especially well-known for his contribution to video gaming. Read Descriptive Video Works post honoring Brandon. (Posted Jul 12)

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 make purchases via Amazon, you can help support the expenses associated with the Audio Description Project and this website. If you shop online by clicking our "Shop Now!" link (which is always on this main page), any and all purchases you make from Amazon will result in a commission to the ACB (American Council of the Blind), our parent organization. Purchasing videos via our DVDs page counts, as do additional purchases made while buying a DVD. PLEASE remember this and help us out! THANKS! (And of course you can also click the DONATE button at the top of every page!)

Every month, Poster House in NYC offers Vibrant Verbal Description Tours (typically via Zoom) specifically for community members who are blind or have low vision. Their tours allow you intimate access to the items in their current shows and permanent collection. Here is the remaining tour for this month:

Events are free. To RSVP, visitors can email acc...@posterhouse.org or call 914-295-2387. For the Zoom event, you will be emailed poster images for reference as well as information about accessing Zoom the day of the virtual tour. (Updated May 17)

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?

Please support the cost of this website by initiating any Amazon purchases via our link to the right, or just remember to type this address: adp.acb.org/amazon. As an Amazon Associate, the ACB receives a small commission from each referred sale.

If you are looking for a movie or TV series with description in the USA, please consult our Master AD List. It includes current cinema titles, all TV series on FCC-mandated networks, those in syndication with streaming services, plus original offerings from Apple TV+, Disney+, Hulu, Max, Netflix, Paramount+, Peacock, Prime Video, and Tubi. All commercial DVDs ever produced with description are also listed, plus every described movie on the nine free and fee subscription streaming services, plus the transactional services: iTunes, Google Play, and Fandango at Home. There's nothing like it anywhere else in the world!

You can support the ADP website by initiating any purchases you choose to make from Amazon by clicking the link to the right. As an Amazon Associate, we earn from qualifying purchases, which help support the cost of bringing you this website..

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!

Audio Description involves the accessibility of the visual images of theater, television, movies, and other art forms for people who are blind, have low vision, or who are otherwise visually impaired. It is a narration service (provided at no additional charge to the patron) that attempts to describe what the sighted person takes for granted -- those images that a person who is blind or visually impaired formerly could only experience through the whispered asides from a sighted companion.

In theaters, in museums, and accompanying television, film, and video presentations, Audio Description is commentary and narration which guides the listener through the presentation with concise, objective descriptions of new scenes, settings, costumes, body language, and "sight gags," all slipped in between portions of dialogue or songs.

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.

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.

This approach involves providing a second version of video content with extended AD. One of the main obstacles in creating traditional AD is that a vast amount of information needs to be provided in a very short amount of time (such as during pauses in the dialogue.) Typically a version of the movie with extended AD and a version without descriptions are available, or the AD can be turned on and off.

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