M+E Connections

Rhys Lloyd, Studio Head of Descriptive Video Works, a division of Keywords Studios, thinks audio description (AD) for content can best be described as “describe everything.” The idea behind the technology is to keep those who are blind or otherwise visually impaired from being left out, offering an audio track that describes everything that can be seen.

At the recent Content Workflow Management Forum event, Lloyd and Shawn Marsolais, founder and executive director of Blind Beginnings, and herself visually impaired, walked attendees through what exactly goes into AD, touching on how far the industry has come in providing content accessibility, and outlined a vision for the future where everything is described on the content side.

“For an action programme, audio description turns a movie that is mostly just noise into a compelling story,” Marsolais said. “When I’m watching a suspense programme with audio description, my palms will be sweating.

“When I was growing up, there was no audio description, but it was something I wished existed.”

When she was 12, Marsolais entered a contest that called for new inventions to help blind people, and she came up with a version of TV earphones allowing blind people to hear the description of the content being played. It wasn’t until she was 18 that her idea became a reality among content producers, and then only for limited content, nothing for theatres or live theatrical.

Lloyd played a clip of a “Mr. Bean” show without audio description to relay what people like Marsolais experience: no dialogue, a series of laughs, and things banging together, with zero context. “Even a drama becomes more meaningful when body language and facial expressions are described,” Marsolais said. “Anything with subtitles is completely lost, as well as any writing on the screen.”

Lloyd then played the same “Mr. Bean” clip with AD, and everything is described: Bean walking into the wall with a turkey on his head, Bean answering the door with a towel draped over it, a guest hanging mistletoe from the ceiling, etc.

Everything is described, and for the visually impaired, all those laughs and noises now make sense.

Close your eyes while you have your favourite show on and “You can experience the potential frustration when content is not accessible,” Lloyd said.

Click here to access video of the full presentation.

The Content Workflow Management Forum was produced by MESA, the Audio Business Continuity Alliance, Content Localisation Council, Smart Content Council, and the Hollywood IT Society, with sponsorship by Iyuno Media Group, Richey May Technology Solutions, Whip Media Group, Deluxe, Digital Nirvana, Meta, Vubiquity, EIDR, Keywords Studios, Los Angeles Duplication & Broadcasting, Nexus TV, OOONA, Signiant and Titles-On.