Audio description is a technology that enhances the viewing experience of blind or visually impaired people. It helps people with vision problems understand and enjoy visual images, be it in theater, television, movies, and even YouTube. In essence, audio description for blind people is what closed captioning for deaf people. It is a narration service, usually free, to help a blind person view video content as a normally sighted person can. If you were a blind person, it is like having a sighted friend beside you describing what’s going on the screen in details.

Audio description can accompany a variety of performances whether in theaters, museums, television, film, or video presentations. The purpose of the video description is to provide the listeners with commentary and narration. Audio description include accurate, neutral descriptions of new scenes, change of scenes, settings, costumes, facial expressions, physical actions, body language, and “visual jokes,” permeating the presentation in a way that doesn’t interfere with the dialogue or soundtracks.

What does audio description look like in the real world? According to international standards that regulate publishing audio descriptions, there are several forms of audio descriptions. All of these forms are tested and known to be efficient.