Halloween Videos With Description

Some years back, VITAC, the nation's largest captioning company, Audio Description Associates, LLC, and the ACB's own Audio Description Project teamed up to caption and describe four public domain videos/films over four years at Halloween time. The cinematic horror treats are posted on YouTube, and we invite you to enjoy them … and try not be too frightened!  The links to the films are as follows:

• NOSFERATU
• NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD
• CARNIVAL OF SOULS
• POPEYE - "Fright to the Finish"

Happy Halloween!  And for those of you with kids with visual impairment, you may wish to check out this piece from the AFB on Halloween Tips.  (Posted Oct 19)

AD Titles Milestones Reached!

In a sense they are arbitrary, but we like "round numbers."  Congratulations to both Netflix and Amazon Prime Video for breaking 1000 titles each this week!  (iTunes already did.)  And in turn, that lets us break the 3000 described titles mark in our Master AD List (which has been reformatted slightly to make it easier to get more information about each title).  (Posted October 15)

FCC Grants Limited Waiver to USA Network

We previously reported that USA Network had requested a waiver from the FCC regarding the number of hours of described programming, specifically regarding repeats.  The FCC has decided the issue as follows:

"On October 7, 2019, the FCC's Media Bureau granted a limited waiver requested by NBCUniversal ... on behalf of its wholly owned nonbroadcast programming network, USA Network, of the Commission's video description rules, as long as USA Network airs at least 1,000 hours of described programming each quarter without regard to the number of repeats and describes at least 75 percent of any newly produced, non-live programming that is aired between 6:00 a.m. and midnight per quarter. However, the FCC declined to grant NBCUniversal's proposed safe harbor from the video description requirements for other similarly situated, top five nonbroadcast networks."  (Posted Oct 8)

Hulu Addresses Accessibility

On October 3, Hulu published a Press Release entitled Making Hulu More Accessible than Ever Before.  They have been addressing "accessible design," and for "this round of improvements, we focused on text legibility and screen reader capabilities."  They are beginning to roll out improvements in this area starting with Roku devices.  This is not the same as having AD tracks available on all devices, though, which is a future objective.  (Posted Oct 8)

Nomination for Audio Description Narration

For most movies and TV shows, the job of getting description to you lies with two professionals:  an audio description WRITER, and the person who VOICES the description (a voice-over artist or narrator).  For what is perhaps the first time, a professional organization (SOLAS, the Society of Voice Artists and Sciences) has nominated an audio description narrator for an award.  The category is "Outstanding Narration – TV, Film or Web – Best Voiceover," and the nominee is Roy Samuelson for his work on Universal's 2019 release of Glass.  It's great to see any component of audio description get recognition like this, and we congratulate Roy on the nomination and wish him luck!  (And speaking of Roy, here is yet another article on audio description by or about Roy:  Bringing TV and Movies to Life with Audio Description.)  (Posted Oct 8)

The Process of Recording Audio Description

Voiceover artist Roy Samuelson, who specializes in recording audio description scripts for movies and advocates for audio description, has been interviewed yet again!  (See previous interviews.)  In this interview with Directors Notes, Roy discusses "the process of providing Audio Description," as well as the benefits to those with normal vision.  The article includes numerous samples of Roy's AD work.  (Posted Sep 10)

Disability Advisory Committee Recommendations to the FCC

Several ADP committee members are on the FCC's Disability Advisory Committee (DAC).  On September 24th, the DAC finalized a recommendation to the FCC on the subject of Described Audio TV Listings.  Ultimately, they recommend that "the Commission encourage all networks, channels, cable, satellite, fiber, streaming, and other services that provide video programming with audio description to provide timely, accurate program listings in accessible form, including ... on aggregator services, on their own websites, and in program guides."  Interestingly, they also recommend that the FCC drop the term "video description" in favor of the well-established  term "audio description" and "encourage other entities to do the same as a best practice."  They also recommend that the FCC adopt and recommend that others adopt the well-known Graphic Artists Guild AD symbol (above right) as the official standardized logo.  Read the full DAC Recommendation.  (Posted Oct 1)

Live Audio Descriptions Are His Forte

That's the title of an article in the online edition of The Hindu newspaper.  The article discusses the career of ADP Director and audio describer Joel Snyder.  Joel was recently in Chennai (the capital of the Indian state of Tamil Nadu) for the Ability Foundation’s two-day workshop on audio description. Joel has trained audio describers in 62 countries, sometimes with a translator beside him.  (Posted Sep 17)