Audio Description – Making Television Accessible To The Visually Impaired

If closed captioning technology has made television viewing more of a worthwhile pursuit for people with hearing difficulties, it took a while longer for people with visual impairments and disabilities to get their own version of the concept. However in the last decade there has been a development which now allows people who are visually impaired, or even entirely blind, to enjoy television. Although it can never replicate exactly what someone with perfect vision is seeing, it does allow the person with a visual impairment to set a context for what they are enjoying.

Audio description – a fairly self-explanatory term – is not dissimilar to a running commentary on a television sports broadcast. As almost all televised content features natural pauses in the spoken word, audio description is used during these natural pauses to describe in succinct and vivid terms what is taking place on screen. As the audio description often needs to fit into what are rather short gaps, it is necessary that it be succinct and that it be genuinely descriptive, which presents a challenge for those writing the content.

Despite these challenges and its relative novelty status in the present day, audio description has won many plaudits for its genuine effectiveness in bringing televised content to an audience that was previously left somewhat frustrated by the limitations of television. Not only this, but its use has been extended beyond the visually impaired audience, winning favor with people who find that they do not always understand that which they see. It has done this quietly but effectively, and it seems to be here to stay.