Audio Description Online: A Black Hole for Accessibility

It's a difficult game of catch-up to expand the presence of audio description online. 

While audio description is becoming increasingly embraced in the world of TV, film, and video on demand services, there remains a severe lack of availability online. As inaction continues, this black hole in the online media universe continues to grow wider. The blind and visually impaired aren't the only ones missing out on the opportunities audio description can provide, either…

April 17, 2015 was a big day for audio description, when Marvel's Daredevil became the first show on Netflix to include an audio description track. This meant low-vision viewers could select an option to have a narrator describe everything on screen that they would otherwise miss. Featuring blind superhero Matt Murdock as the spin-off's main protagonist, it was an apt choice for the visually impaired community. 

Since then, the video on demand provider has been steadily increasing the number of productions that feature audio description. According to the American Council of the Blind (ACB), Netflix has 1,272 film and TV titles with audio description on its platform in the United States, accounting for around a quarter of its total content. There's still a lot of work to do, but the trend is positive. 

Staying state side, the situation is even rosier for blind movie-goers. Since 2018, federal regulations require cinemas to have the necessary equipment to provide an audio description in the English language. In most cases, visually impaired people access the narration track through special headphones. As such, nearly all first-run movies are now accessible to the blind.

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