Audio Description Links - October 2025
In one hemisphere, it is Autumn; in the other half of the sphere, it is Spring! Where I am, the wildflowers are out in an extraordinary display. Really beautiful. In either hemisphere it was Hallowe'en yesterday, and when I took the mail to the newsagent to post, I was served by a polite and helpful vampire and had a nice chat with Luigi. That's what I call an inclusive and diverse workplace!
27 links this month. This abundance is partly due to The Audio Description Project releasing their conference recordings (brilliant!), and partly that SBS have released Audio Description Introductions for a number of their programmes (awesome!) plus we have the usual fare along with all sorts of other bits and pieces.
And two podcast interviews this month are with AD QC specialists. I feel like there's not enough focus on this area sometimes, so it's very welcome!
And a special shout-out to the BBC Artworks episode “Ways of Not Seeing”. An absorbing and thought-provoking examination of audio describing artwork. Worth a look. Update: The BBC have decided that this content is not available via their website to overseas listeners. Extremely disappointing! Try the BBC App if you have a platform that supports it; or use Get_iPlayer to download manually.
Podcasts
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Audio Description Best Practices in Movie Theaters (Audio Description Project)
Description: Most new theatrical releases are audio described. Learn from a blind movie-goer, Cinema United, and other industry experts about how to make your next visit to the movie theater accessible and successful.
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Writing Audio Description with AI Tools (Audio Description Project)
Discussion and demonstration of audio description writing tools and how they work on their own and with human collaboration.
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Audio Description and Sports (Audio Description Project)
Panelists discuss how audio description for sporting events is different from play-by-play on radio, as well as how other countries are using AD at sporting events.
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Using Your Phone and Smart Glasses to Describe the World Around You (Audio Description Project)
Learn from experts how to use smart phone apps to help describe images, photos, and videos. Several apps will be demonstrated, including Ally, Gemini, PiccyBot, Seeing AI, and more.
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International Audio Description: A Global Update (Audio Description Project)
Several years ago, the ADP partnered with the World Blind Union to conduct a survey that revealed AD exists in more than 70 countries. Panelists discuss the state of AD in their home countries.
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Audio Description People's Choice Awards: Final Voting Kick-Off (Audio Description Project)
The nominations have been counted and it's time to vote for the best audio description of the last year. Come experience clips of each nominated film and series, and then cast your vote for the two you like most. Special guests will include AD writers and narrators and industry experts to discuss how award-winning AD is created
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Audio Description and Gaming Accessibility (Audio Description Project)
Learn about audio description and accessible gaming. Presenters discuss what is available and which companies support gaming for people who are blind or have low vision.
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Bridget Interviews Roy part 3 (The ADNA Presents)
In this final segment of Bridget's interview, Roy Samuelson pulls back the curtain on a years-long campaign to get audio description performers formally recognized by the Television Academy, a move that opens the door for blind professionals to take their rightful place at the table. He shares the staggering 180-degree shift from being told “there's nothing we can do” to a full green light, and reveals what happened behind the scenes to make it possible.
They unpack what makes audio description succeed or fail: from clunky synthetic voices to breathtaking human narration, and explore Roy's vision for “Kevin's Way,” a tone that signals to blind audiences that they're in good hands.
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DARCI S02 Ep.10 Interview with Monia Zabrocka (Disability, Accessibility and Representation in the Creative Industries (DARCI).)
This podcast episode features an interview with Monika Zabrocka, exploring creative audio description for children, neurodivergent inclusion, and the future of accessible storytelling.
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Ways of Not Seeing (BBC Radio 4)
For decades, art galleries have provided blind visitors with audio descriptions of paintings in their collections. But these descriptions are often only dry, “objective” accounts of the fabulous artworks they aim to represent. Now, a new world of imaginative audio description is emerging, and it promises to transform the experience of art galleries for blind and sighted people alike.
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Reversing Roles in Visual Description (The Disability Collective)
This month, The Disability Collective is mounting 20 Years Later: The (In)Accessibility of Ontario, a photography exhibition showcasing the shortcomings of the AODA (Accessibility for Ontarians with Disabilities Act). When Describer/Consultant duo JJ Hunt and Christine Malec were brought on board to write the visual descriptions, they proposed an experiment: instead of JJ writing the descriptions and Christine consulting, as usual, what if Christine (who is Blind) wrote the descriptions using AI to gather visual information, and JJ (who is sighted) consulted to ensure accuracy.
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Close-up with Serina Gilbert, Blind AD Quality Control Specialist (The Dark Room)
Lee and Alex sit down with Serina Gilbert, a blind AD Quality Control Specialist, mom, content creator, and AD advocate.
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Rebecca Odum (The ADNA Presents)
Roy Samuelson interviews Rebecca Odum, a blind audio description quality control specialist whose expertise ensures that scripts, narration, and final mixes deliver clear, authentic, and emotionally aligned storytelling. She discusses the evolving landscape of AD, the behind-the-scenes work of QC specialists, and how professionals like herself are shaping the future of accessibility in entertainment.
Articles
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Blind comic Chris McCausland blasts 'woke' AI and television audio descriptions for not detailing people's race (The Daily Mail)
Chris McCausland has criticised woke AI and television audio description for not describing people’s race for fear of causing offence. ‘You don’t want to be looking at a photograph of someone famous like Denzel Washington and all it says is ‘it’s a man’. You want to know that is a photograph of Denzel Washington, including race.'
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'A collaboration of the senses’: Royal Ballet teams up with blind artist for new show. (The Guardian)
Using immersive descriptive audio, performance explores how blindness can redefine experience of dance. Devon Healey, a blind artist, is guided by a desire to show how blindness and disability can offer an alternative form of perception for everyone. Her “immersive descriptive audio”, woven with the music, is at the centre of the performance on stage.
Research Papers
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What You See is What You Ask: Evaluating Audio Descriptions (Cornell University)
Existing works in automatic AD generation mostly focus on few-second trimmed clips, and evaluate them by comparing against a single ground-truth reference AD. However, writing ADs is inherently subjective. Through alignment and analysis of two independent AD tracks for the same movies, we quantify the subjectivity in when and whether to describe, and what and how to highlight. Thus, we show that working with trimmed clips is inadequate.
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Understanding Visual Arts Experiences of Blind People (ArXiv)
We conducted semi-structured interviews with 15 blind visual arts patrons to understand how they engage with visual artwork and the factors that influence their adoption of visual arts access methods.
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Understanding Blind and Low Vision People’s Video Accessibility Preferences Across Viewing Scenarios (ArXiv)
While audio description (AD) is the standard approach for making videos accessible to blind and low vision (BLV) people, existing AD guidelines do not consider BLV users' varied preferences across viewing scenarios. These scenarios range from how-to videos on YouTube, where users seek to learn new skills, to historical dramas on Netflix, where a user's goal is entertainment.
Audio Description Introductions
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Moni — An Audio Description Introduction (SBS Australia)
Audio description introduction for Moni. After ten years away, Moni, a gay Samoan man, returns to Sydney determined not to miss his sister Hana's wedding. But an unexpected arrival throws things into disarray.
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Alone Australia Series 01 — An Audio Description Introduction (SBS Australia)
Audio description introduction for Alone Australia Series 01. Ten survivalists are dropped into the West Coast Ranges of Tasmania for the challenge of a lifetime: to survive in the wild without any human contact. Only the last one standing can win \$250,000.
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Alone Australia Series 02 — An Audio Description Introduction (SBS Australia)
Audio description introduction for Alone Australia Series 02. Ten survivalists are dropped into the West Coast Ranges of Tasmania for the challenge of a lifetime: to survive in the wild without any human contact. Only the last one standing can win \$250,000.
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Moonbird — An Audio Description Introduction (SBS Australia)
Audio description introduction for Moonbird Series 01. On a remote island off the coast of Lutruwita (Tasmania), a 13-year-old Palawa boy navigates the complexities of his world alongside his father, a man shaped by his past and the challenges of raising his son.
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The People vs Robodebt (SBS Australia)
Audio description introduction for The People vs Robodebt. An emotionally charged political thriller that unflinchingly exposes the devastating human cost of a cruel and illegal welfare scheme, and the brave Australians who stood up to fight it.
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Tell Me What You Really Think Season 1 — Audio Description Introduction (SBS)
Audio description introduction for "Tell Me What You Really Think" Season 1. Marc Fennell throws a very different kind of dinner party, inviting extraordinary Australians facing some of the most important health issues of today to tell him what they really think.
Video
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Synthetic Speech in Audio Description – is it ready? (YouTube)
Whilst there could be advantages to using synthetic speech for audio description it is not always popular with AD users. RNIB conducted a study alongside UK broadcasters to objectively determine whether the quality of synthetic speech is currently good enough to voice audio description. Using a MOS-based questionnaire and following up with a focus group we uncovered insights into how synthetic speech measures up to human voiced content and what the next steps might be to protect the quality of audio description.
Older Video Links
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Audio Description in Advertising - Eric Wickstrom & Liz Gutman (Youtube)
The heads of the award-winning Audio Description department at the International Digital Centre (IDC) lead a discussion about the benefits of AD in advertising and explore the current and historical shortcomings of the industry.
Social Media
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Why Did Crunchyroll's Subtitles Just Get Worse?
Discussion on Hacker News about an article on Anime By the Numbers reporting a decrease in quality of their subtitles for anime. The discussion is tangentially interesting as it discusses fansubs, piracy, and AI.