Striving to remove barriers that prevent us from building Vibrant, Diverse, Inclusive, Accessible Communities!
A video carries information in two ways: through what viewers hear and through what appears on the screen. Captions give Deaf and Hard of Hearing viewers the spoken words and meaningful sounds. Audio Description gives Blind and Low Vision viewers the visual information, such as who is on the screen, where the scene is set, what is happening, and any text that appears but is never read aloud. A video with captions and no Audio Description still shuts out Blind and Low Vision viewers. A video with Audio Description and no captions still shuts out Deaf and Hard of Hearing viewers.
The Social Model of Disability places the barrier in the video that was published without description, not in the person who cannot see it. Removing that communication barrier is the responsibility of the people who show or make video. It is service, not a favor granted on request, as the discussion of charity versus service explains. The guide to removing barriers lists uncaptioned video among the communication barriers that keep people out of community programs.
Video carries knowledge, and the Universal House of Justice places access to knowledge among the rights of every human being:
“Access to knowledge is the right of every human being, and participation in its generation, application and diffusion a responsibility that all must shoulder in the great enterprise of building a prosperous world civilization—each individual according to his or her talents and abilities. Justice demands universal participation.” -The Universal House of Justice, Riḍván 2010 – To the Bahá’ís of the World
What Audio Description Is and Who It Serves
The Web Accessibility Initiative of the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C), the organization that develops web standards, explains that description gives people who are blind, and others who cannot see the video adequately, the visual information in a video. Some regions call it video description or described video.
Not every video calls for it. A podcast has no visual information, and a recording of one person talking, with everything important already spoken, calls for no description. A video that shows a demonstration, a chart, a change of scene, or text that the speakers never read aloud does call for it.
Audio Description is access for Blind and Low Vision viewers first. W3C also notes that people with cognitive limitations who find it hard to interpret what is happening on the screen may benefit as well.
Hear Audio Description in Action
Audio Description in a Couple of Minutes
Short Examples with Audio Description
A Longer Example
An Expansive Prospect is a film commissioned by the Universal House of Justice in 2023. This is a version with Audio Description.
Description can also be an art. The article Hear the Dance: Audio Description Comes of Age follows dance artists, including the Blind dancer Krishna Washburn, who are weaving description into choreography and arguing that describers should join the creative process from the start.
Find Described Content to Watch
The Audio Description Project, an initiative of the American Council of the Blind, advocates for high quality Audio Description in television, movies, performing arts, museums, and other places where visual media carries meaning. Its Film and Series Title Directory lists titles that have Audio Description and can be filtered by streaming service, genre, rating, and language. The project also lists television schedules, video games, performing arts, and museum, park, and tour offerings.
Make Audio Description a habit when you watch. Look for this Audio Description icon, and choose the described audio option in the player’s audio or language settings:
Finding described content is half the task. Starting it is the other half. Brian Charlson, who chaired the Information Access Committee of the American Council of the Blind, told a U.S. Senate committee in 2013 what an afterthought looks like in practice:
“As technology changed from the video tape to the DVD, some of the accessibility was lost, in that I and my friends had no means to navigate the on-screen menus required to play the audio described soundtrack. We now must rely on sighted friends and family to turn on audio description each time we want to watch a movie in our homes.” -Brian Charlson, Testimony to the U.S. Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions, 14 May 2013 (American Council of the Blind)
A described track that a Blind viewer cannot start without a sighted partner is not yet accessible. When you share a video, test the link, the player, and the audio menu with a screen reader before the event.
When You Show Video in a Program or Presentation
Check every video before you show it. Look for captions, and look for Audio Description. Name the people each one serves: captions give Deaf and Hard of Hearing participants the spoken content, and Audio Description gives Blind and Low Vision participants the visual content.
The Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) are the international accessibility standard developed by W3C, and the guide to training in the international accessibility standards shows where to learn them. For prerecorded video that has both sound and picture, Success Criterion 1.2.3 at Level A asks for either Audio Description or a full text alternative. Success Criterion 1.2.5 at Level AA asks for Audio Description. WCAG does not require description of live video, although W3C notes that Blind viewers still require it.
In the United States, state and local governments, including special district governments and libraries, must meet WCAG 2.1 Level AA on their web content under the Americans with Disabilities Act Title II rule. The Department of Justice extended the compliance dates in 2026. They are April 26, 2027 for entities serving a population of 50,000 or more, and April 26, 2028 for smaller entities and special districts. Check the requirements that apply in your own jurisdiction.
For a live gathering, the guide to planning welcoming, accessible gatherings asks presenters to turn on captions and Audio Description for each video. When a video has no Audio Description, the presenter describes it aloud, along with each slide, chart, image, and diagram.
If a video is the only source of what you want to share and it lacks captions or Audio Description, tell its producer. Explain that you want to use the video and cannot until it is accessible. Producers who hear from viewers have a reason to include captions and Audio Description from the start. This is a practical form of advocacy, and the article on advocacy asks whether people can report barriers in a community’s videos, events, and communications and receive a meaningful response.
When You Make Your Own Video
Decide How the Description Will Be Delivered
W3C advises planning accessibility from the start of a project. In its guide to description of visual information, part of Making Audio and Video Media Accessible, W3C lists these ways to provide description:
- Integrated: build the visual information into the script the speakers read. This works for some new videos, such as training videos.
- Text: a timed text file, usually in the WebVTT format, that the player reads aloud. It requires player features and either room in the audio or a pause feature.
- Audio only: a separate audio track of descriptions. It requires room in the audio and a player that handles separate audio tracks.
- Described video with space: a new version of the video with the descriptions mixed into the gaps in the existing audio.
- Described video without space: a new version in which scenes are recut or a still image is held while the descriptions play.
Where the pauses in the audio are too short, WCAG offers extended Audio Description at Level AAA. The same options apply to videos you already have.
Involve Blind People in the Work
Blind People are partners in making described media, not only its audience. Mark Riccobono says it this way:
“Blind people are not passive consumers. We are innovators, experts, and equal partners in creating the future.” -Mark Riccobono, People Who Are Blind Remove Barriers in Schools, Jobs, and Public Life Through the Bonds They Share
AudioEyes publishes its workflow for creating Audio Description. A trained describer writes a script, a script specialist checks it for accuracy and timing, and a description quality specialist reviews it for how well it works for Blind viewers. Recording, editing, mixing, and delivery follow.
The Anti Racist Audio Description guidance from Superior Description Services asks describers to state everyone’s race, to ask the people shown for their own descriptions of themselves, and to pay Black, Indigenous, and other People of Color who are Blind or have Low Vision to take part in writing, narration, quality checks, and sound engineering. The article on writing meaningful descriptive alt text for images explains the same care in describing people.
Find Providers and Guidelines
- The Audio Description Project keeps a directory of Audio Description professionals for writing, voicing, full service production, on site description, quality control and consulting, training, and audio engineering. A listing is not an endorsement by the American Council of the Blind.
- The Described and Captioned Media Program offers guidelines for captioning and describing educational media, and a streaming library of educational videos with captions and Audio Description. Its resources serve school personnel, families, students, and content creators.
- Mara Calvello’s 2020 article Why Audio Descriptions Need to Be a Priority for Your Content describes the types of Audio Description and the laws that call for it.
Questions for Reflection
- Are the people who are producing videos making certain that the videos are accessible and have captions as well as Audio Descriptions? If not, then why not?
- When our community shows a video at a gathering, who checks beforehand whether it has captions and Audio Description, and what do we do when it has neither?
- Of the videos our community has published or shared in the past year, which could a Blind person follow completely without a sighted person describing the screen, and how do we know?
- Have Blind People and People with Low Vision in our community told us what a described video gave them and what it left out, and what did we change because of what they said?
- When a video we want to use has no Audio Description, who contacts the producer to ask for one, and how would we know whether anyone has ever done so for our community?
- What do we set aside in money and in time to caption and describe the videos we make, who decided that amount, and what happens to a video when the amount runs out?
