Years ago, the technique of adding closed captioning to film and tv made watching audio/video presentations more enjoyable if not altogether possible for persons who are hard of hearing or deaf. Now, it is possible for a person who is blind or visually impaired to listen to an alternate, descrete audio channel which plays narration describing what is being shown on the television.

Probably the most common term used to describe this technique of providing access for visually impaired audiences is "audio description." That term seems to have evolved out of the activities and efforts of people involved in making description possible in live theatre. Another term, mostly used by the federal government to describe the process of adding these descriptive tracks to films and television broadcasts is "video description." A term growing in use for it's more generic feel is "descriptive narration." In any case, the concept is always the same. A visually impaired person, or anyone not able to see the screen can listen to the audio portion of a film or television program and will hear an added voice describing actions and images that cannot be discerned by listening to the dialog and sound effects alone.

In the late 1960's, C. Stanley Potter used a a subcarrier frequency of an an FM radio station to descretely broadcast himself reading to blind listeners. The following twenty years produced radio reading services for the visually impaired across the country. During the 1980's, the subcarrier frequencies of television stations began to be used to broadcast foreign language versions of popular programs. These subcarrier frequencies became known as SAP (second audio program) channels. At the end of that decade,the SAP channel was first used to broadcast video description for the blind. During the 1990's, video description was occasionally provided on the PBS network. Commercial networks basically refused to voluntarily broadcast video description of their programs.

In July 2000, the FCC's ruling on this accessibility matter mandated that the major television networks add descriptive narration tracks to approximately 4 hours per week of their prime time and children's broadcast programs. However, the National Association of Broadcasters, the National Cable Television Association, and the National Federation of the Blind sued the Federal Communications Commission and challenged this mandate for television accessibility. The mandate took effect April 1, 2002, and the four largest commercial broadcast networks along with the five largest cable networks began including video description for certain television programs. In NOvember 2002, the Motion Picture Association of America convinced the D.C. Appelate Court to overturn the ruling. The issue is certainly not cost alone. During the 1990's, the federal government issued millions of dollars through the Department Of Education to pay for the production of these narration tracks. The policy of using tax dollars to pay for broadcast description is somewhat controversial. The question is not only whether this is effective or approppriate in the long term but how such funds ought to be awarded. Currently, federal grants are awarded to some description production companies and not others, thereby skewing the ordinary nature of the competitive marketplace. The award process does not necessarily consider whether a description production company employs members of the visually impaired community.

During the 1990's, the popularity of DVD's as a format for watching movies and TV shows brought great hope that more described programs would become available. Since DVD's already typically offer alternate audio tracks containing various languages, the opportunity to add another audio track that includes description seemed to be easily achieved. However, once again, members of the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) including major movie producing studios have exhibited great reluctance to offer such a simple solution for millions of visually impaired consumers. Unfortunately, the thirty or so DVD's that do offer description tracks do not indicate availability of the feature on the packaging and are not marketed directly to the visually impaired community.

Soon, mainstream consumers, who are not visually impaired, will be able to make use of audio description as well! XM Satellite Radio has announced that it will launch an audio channel specifically for consumers who want to listen to movies while driving automobiles. Perhaps the foresight of visionary companies like XM will eventually lead the producers of films and TV shows to remember to include visually impaired consumers in their entertainment media marketing plans.

What Can You Do?
Write, call, email your legislative representatives, and ask them to support the Video Description Restoration Act. Contact commercial network executives, and producers of your favorite shows, and urge them to add video description to the broadcast and DVD versions of their programs.