Audio Description Links - June 2025
And ... we're back! This is your monthly round up of audio description links and things interesting to audio describers, in no particular order.
Podcasts
- Night/Shifts (LuminoCity)
LuminoCity’s Christine Malec and describer JJ Hunt embark on a city wide art crawl under the streets to experience it all. This, as it turned out, became a friendly competition between JJ and his describing skills versus Christine’s AI describing apps. Listen in to find out which describer gets the edge, but also how this city-wide exhibit celebrates the Torontonians that keep the city alive while we all go to sleep.
- The Blind Film Critics Society on Cinema Fuckery (Access Fuckery)
“It's not a budgetary thing. It's them sending a message.”
“It's when you step into a streaming service and you see all of the titles and all the possibilities. Not only is it frustrating to see titles that have never had audio description, but it's frustrating to see titles that you know have audio description and just don't have it on that service. Stuff like that happens all the time and it's just disrespectful, you know?”
- Immersive. Inclusive. Incredible. Dive Into the LuminoCity Podcast – Where Audio Description Redefines Inclusive Story Telling (Blind Abilities)
Jeff Thompson welcomes Christine Malec to the Blind Abilities studio to shine a spotlight on the LuminoCity Podcast—an immersive audio experience created for the Luminato Festival in Toronto. Designed with accessibility in mind, LuminoCity goes far beyond traditional coverage by weaving together artist interviews, on-site audio-rich reporting, and vibrant audio description that brings the festival to life for blind and low-vision listeners.
- Carl Richardson on the Fuckery of Assumptions (Access Fuckery)
We all know about the road paved with good intentions. Carl Richardson I an American with Disabilities Act or ADA coordinator for the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, and considers himself to be part of the deafblind community.
- Gregg Mozgala on Generative Fuckery (Access Fuckery)
Gregg Mozgala is an actor and artistic director of The Apothetae, a company with a mission to produce works that explore and illuminate the disabled experience.
- Behind the Mic: How We Built Our Comic-Con Panel on Audio Description (The ADNA Presents)
Featuring Anna Capezzera, Colleen Connor, and Serina Gilbert. This conversation pulls back the curtain on our upcoming Comic-Con panel about audio description. Panelists talk about why they signed on, what matters to them in this work, and what they hope the audience takes away.
- Jeremy Seda - Accessibility Camp 2025 (The ADNA Presents)
What does Jiu-Jitsu have to do with digital accessibility? For Jeremy Seda? Everything. In this episode, the North Idaho College IT Accessibility Coordinator shares how his love of storytelling, empathy, and positive reinforcement shapes his fight for inclusion, both in tech and on the mat. With deeply personal stories, a refreshing call for progress over perfection, and game-changing insights into the power of accessible design, Jeremy invites us to rethink what true connection looks like. Oh, and AI-powered audio description pitches? Don't miss this one.
- The Mission: Impossible Films Ranked (The Dark Room)
Now that the final installment is out, Alex and Lee rank all 8 Mission: Impossible films and discuss their favorite stunts, as well as the audio description tracks for the franchise.
- Close Up with the American Council of the Blind: ADP Co-Chairs, Carl Richardson & Kim Charlson (The Dark Room)
Carl Richardson and Kim Charlson are the co-chairs of the American Council of the Blind's Audio Description Project, and they join Lee and Alex to discuss the various media-related committees of the ACB and how they are helping to advance accessibility in the entertainment industry. We also discuss the upcoming ACB virtual and in-person conference, as well as the panels that will be available for you to attend.
Articles
- AI is now used for audio description. But it should be accurate and actually useful for people with low vision by Kathryn Locke and Tama Leaver (The Conversation)
Traditionally, audio description has been created using human voices, script writers and production teams. However, in the last year several international streaming services including Netflix and Amazon Prime have begun offering audio description that’s at least partially generated with AI.
- The Imagination Industry Fails To Imagine Artists With Accessibility Needs by Bill Schiffmiller (Forbes)
Despite its reputation for innovation, the performing arts industry is overlooking a critical form of talent: artists and professionals with accessibility needs. This article explores the barriers they face and the solutions they utilize — from stages to behind-the-scenes production. They are building a more accessible entertainment economy and showing how inclusion is a business advantage, not a burden.
- Review of Predator: Killer Of killers (John Stark)
Blind film critic John Stark reviews Predator: Killer of Killers, an animated horror anthology film.
- Why Koreans Ask What Year You Were Born (Bryan Hogan)
In the Audio Description Symposium in Australia last month, one of the speakers noted a aspect of Korean culture I found interesting, and turned up an article about it.
“One thing that was surprising for me in South Korea was how important age is. Meeting new people in Korea they would often ask very early on what year I was born. But why? In Germany, people generally don’t really care that much about your age. In Korea there are several reasons why age matters though.”
Video
- StarGate Audio Description Live Stream (Youtube)
Watch audio describer and producer Kyle Warwick-Mathieu record and place audio description for the 1995 film StarGate, mistakes and all, in this livestream. Link to Day 2.
- Stranger Things Series 5 Trailer with Embedded Audio Description (Youtube)
Stranger Things Season 5 Trailer with Audio Description (Unofficial) AD Audio Description written and narrated by Tansy Alexander, Video and Audio Description mixed by Kyle Warwick-Mathieu
Papers
- Audio description in video games: Translation or creation? (ResearchGate)
This paper presents the findings of the TransAD4Games project, which examined whether translating audio descriptions from English is more time and cost-efficient than creating audio descriptions from scratch.
Social Media
- Over the last year, I've noticed clients asking for multiple versions of AD. (Facebook)
From Australian audio describer Alison Meyer — Over the last year, I've noticed clients asking for multiple versions of AD ... Eg, if two streamers were involved in a production, we create a version for each streamer usually with different credits and starting timecode. Sometimes it involves adding or removing commercial breaks, sometimes there are significant re-edits for different countries. Is this common these days? How long has it been going on? Do you think it might help with the AD not travelling problem?
- Quality Control and Name Pronounciation (Facebook)
John Stark, blind film critic, asks about quality control and character name pronounciation.
- Audio Description isn’t a genre—so why is it treated like one? (LinkedIn)
Ren Leach advocates audio description being adaptive to the tone of the material.
When the narration mirrors the mood, it stops being a utility and starts becoming part of the storytelling. That’s when AD stops standing outside the story—and steps inside it.
Historical Links
- "Suit the Action to the Word, the Word to the Action": An Unconventional Approach to Describing Shakespeare's Hamlet
We discuss a case account of an alternative audio description strategy that was prepared for a live production of Hamlet using the subjective, emotional style.
- Audio-describing diversity, or addressing the elephant in the room by Jonathan Penny (Medium)
Discussion of ITV's approach to describing diversity in audio description in 2020.