Creating Accessible Videos: Audio Description

Overview

While captioning is an incredibly important tool for making videos accessible to people that are deaf or hard of hearing, what if you can't see? In this lesson you'll learn about audio description.

You have a choice as to how to engage with the material in this lesson. Remember, the key concepts are always addressed in the text. If you need more info or learn by watching, the videos and resources are great supplements.

 Read: Audio Described Videos

Audio Description

While captions go a long way in making videos accessible to people who are deaf or hard of hearing, they don't fulfill the needs of people that are blind or cannot make out the text or fine details in a video. Audio descriptions allow people with visual impairment to hear what's happening or displayed on the screen that they can't see. Audio descriptions are an additional audio file that can be played over a video. 

For an example of a video with audio descriptions, check out the Frozen trailer (1:31).

 

YouDescribe 

While the idea of creating a separate audio file may seem daunting, there is (of course) a program that will assist you in creating audio descriptions for your videos and allow you to search for videos that have already had audio description added. Once you've made your video or found one that you want to use, if it requires audio descriptions (see next section), you can add audio descriptions yourself through the free program YouDescribe Links to an external site.. 

Another option is to upload it to your wishlist on YouDescribe. As videos get more votes they move to the top of the list for audio description. 

Note: As with any free service, the quality of this approach is questionable since anyone can provide audio description. 

Now I have to add captions AND audio descriptions?! This is going to break the bank (or me!)!

Whoa, whoa, whoa... If you're feeling overwhelmed by all of this post-production work, let me remind you that building accessibility into the process from the start will save you lots of time (and money).

First, remember, using a script will save you tons of time when creating captions. Look over your script. See if you can add in some language that describes the screen or identifies who's talking. Avoid phrases like "over here" or "when I do this" and replace them with more descriptive language (e.g. "when I click on the grades tab in the course menu..."). Read your script and see if you can make sense of the language without visuals. If you can, maybe you don't need audio description.

If multiple people are talking in your video, ask them to identify themselves and their position/role. Again, try to represent any text that might be on the screen through audio. This will minimize the need for additional audio descriptions and can also be beneficial for people using captions, as often times the captions may cover the portion of the screen that contains text.   

Watch: Adding Audio Description

Using YouDescribe (3:17)

A quick overview of YouDescribe - an audio description tool.

How Blind People Watch Movies (13 mins)

James Rath is joined by Tommy Edison, also known as the Blind Film Critic to discuss how people who are blind can enjoy movies like anyone else. Audio descriptions are an extra track of audio that plays over the visuals to describe the visual content in order to progress with the narrative.

Explore: Accessible Video Resources