Audio Description Links - February 2026

04 Mar, 2026

A round up of podcasts and other links covering audio description from February 2026.

Podcasts

• Close Up With Blind Film Director, Sheridan O’Donnell (The Dark Room)

  Alex and Lee chat with Sheridan O’Donnell, a legally blind film director. In our conversation, Sheridan discusses his feature film “Little Brother” and his documentary “Rising Phoenix”, as well as chronicling his journey as a disabled creative.

• The Gentrification of Chinatown (Talk Description to Me)

  Anyone who lives in a city or town has heard of gentrification, but what exactly does it look like? In this episode, Christine and JJ head to Toronto's Chinatown to describe the visuals of gentrification in their hometown.

• 2026 Oscars Audio Description Round Table (The Dark Room)

  Check out The Dark Room's 3rd Annual Oscars Audio Description Roundtable, where we sit down with the audio description talent behind Best picture nominated films like Frankenstein, Train Dreams, Sinners, One Battle After Another and Marty Supreme! special thanks to our guests, Liz Gutman , Anusha Vedagiri, Roy Samuelson, Justin Sohl, Christina Stevens, Adrian Livingston and Erin Mixon.

• Voice Actor Maren Garcia (The ADNA Presents)

  Voice actor Maren Garcia joins host Roy Samuelson to talk about how she first discovered Audio Description, and why it immediately felt personal.

  Maren shares the moment she was hired for a full feature film, after being found through the Disabled Voice Actors Directory, a resource built to support authentic casting.

  They dig into what makes audio description work when it is done well: intention, empathy, and choices that support the story. Audio description is the narration track that communicates essential visual information that the audio alone cannot carry. Maren also describes an experiment watching a dance show with audio description, just to feel how writers and performers decide what matters when everything is visual.

Articles

• How audio description lets all audiences see the full picture (RTÉ News)

  While important advances have been made, audio description provision in Ireland remains fragmented, inconsistent and unevenly distributed

Research Papers

• Audio describing foreign films (The Journal of Specialised Translation)

  Anna Jankowska summarises: Back in 2015, together with Agnieszka Szarkowska, we looked at these challenges by talking to blind and partially sighted viewers about their experiences with audio description in foreign-language films. The study focuses on issues ranging from synchronising AD with voiceover to rendering culture-bound elements.

  Blind and partially sighted participants were involved throughout the study, from commenting on draft AD scripts to watching foreign-language films and sharing their reflections in follow-up discussions and questionnaires.

  The research highlights several recurring areas that may resonate with AD practice:

  Optimal synchronisation: Participants often referred to an “optimum synchronisation”, where audio description does not overlap with either the original actors’ voices or the voiceover translation. When overlap was unavoidable, overlapping with the original dialogue was perceived as less disruptive than overlapping with the voiceover.

  Speaker identification: In voiced-over films, where one talent often reads all parts, participants commented on the use of name insertion, that is, inserting speakers’ names immediately before their utterances, as a way of supporting character identification, while also noting its potential impact on immersion.

  Culture-bound elements: Describing foreign landmarks, customs, or visual references raised questions about how to preserve the “foreign flavour” of a film while still supporting understanding. For example, a landmark such as Tate Modern might be rendered simply as “a large, brick industrial building with a tall chimney”, or it might be named and briefly contextualised. Participants noticed differences between these approaches and how they shaped their understanding of the scene.

  Audio introductions (AI): Audio introductions were discussed as a useful space for providing paratextual information, for example when films contain intertextual or visual references that are difficult to describe during the film itself.

  An old study, but many of the issues raised by participants still come up when working with foreign-language and international audiovisual content.

• The Challenges of Audio Description in Ireland: Bridging Education, Users and Industry (ADESI) (Dublin City University)

  The ADESI report identifies multiple barriers: insufficient training pathways, lack of certification, and unsustainable funding models that undermine professionalism and trust. Awareness also remains low; most users encounter AD informally, reflecting weak promotional strategies.

  To secure an inclusive cultural landscape, Ireland must adopt unified standards, strengthen accountability, and embed accessibility as a consistent, long-term priority across all entertainment platforms.