The Audio Description Project
An Initiative of the American Council of the Blind
Formerly AD International
Audio description is increasingly available for first-run movies, and more and more movie theaters are being built with the necessary equipment to offer the description track to patrons. This page will point you to more information about the process, the movies, and the theaters.
The following statistics are primarily from WGBH Media Access, the largest supplier of captioning and description (which they call DVS®, for Descriptive Video Service), though we keep our own count of AD on DVD:
NOTE: The red part is not a direct subset of
the described first-run movies each year
as many DVDs released with description are from the previous year or are
special
packagings (e.g., complete series) of previously released films
| Year | Captioned | Audio Described | AD on DVD |
| 2011 | 139 | 83 | 78 |
| 2010 | 117 | 74 | 48 |
| 2009 | 119 | 67 | 12 |
| 2008 | 104 | 71 | 7 |
| 2007 | 109 | 59 | 4 |
| 2006 | 102 | 63 | 4 |
| 2005 | 96 | 58 | 3 |
| 2004 | 76 | 48 | 1 |
| 2003 | 67 | 38 | 1 |
| 2002 | 40 | 34 | 1 |
| 2001 | 17 | 12 | 1 |
In theaters, these audio description tracks can be played on a system known as MoPix (marketed via WGBH Media Access Group) or one called DTS Access (marketed via Datasat Digital Entertainment). Both use the same DVS Theatrical "player" for description and captioning, but the MoPix system offers closed captioning via a system called Rear Window® Captioning (RWC), while the DTS Access system offers open captioning on-screen via a special projector. RWC is marked exclusively by Boston Light and Sound, which is also a dealer for the DVS Theatrical system and DTS projector. Each month, more and more movie theaters install the MoPix or DTS Access systems, making the audio description available to people who need it. And now new equipment is coming along to handle description for digital cinema. (See Regal announcement re their plans for digital.)
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iPhone Application to Find Described Movies Captionfish now offers a FREE iPhone application which will search for audio described (and/or captioned) first run movies near you. It also offers (captioned but not described) previews of those movies. Search for Captionfish in the iTunes Apps Store. |
So who decides what films will be described? WGBH Media Access tells us that "All major studios now caption and describe all wide released features and nearly all independent studios caption all releases." Not all of that description makes it to DVD, however; but some studios like Sony, Disney, and Universal are doing it with almost all of their releases since 2010. It's tough to get the smaller, independent studios to fund description of either movies or DVDs.
| Congratulations
to WGBH Media Access:
Over 1000 MoPix titles in over 800 accessible theaters! |
So what happens when a described movie ends its run and is released on DVD? Historically, very few described DVDs were released, but that changed dramatically starting in late 2009. Read more about this and how to order DVDs on our DVDs page.
The following listings pertain primarily to the USA and Canada.
