Unlocking the Power of Audio Description

Shaun:
Shh. Come here, I've got a secret to tell you. Come here. No closer. Closer.
Blind people do watch TV and movies. They do. I know. Weird, right? But more than that, there's a feature that helps us watch TV and movies that could be incredibly useful to sighted people, as well.
Woo.
Let's check out audio description.

Audio Intro:
Shaun of the Shed. An AMI original podcast.

Shaun:
Hello, you gorgeous people, you. And welcome back to another episode of Shaun of the Shed. I am, as ever, that Shaun, and this is my shed.
Now today, I do want to talk about watching TV or movies or whatever it may be, actually. The point is, TV is a very visual medium. Of course it is by its very nature. But does that mean as a blind or visually impaired person that I can't take part? That I can enjoy it as well?
Of course not. That's ridiculous. But maybe not in the same way as a sighted person. The thing that enables me really, or helps me enjoy a TV show or a movie, just like anyone else, is a nifty little feature called audio description which, depending on where you are in the world, may also be called descriptive video services.
But I find that term a little bit, la ti da. Audio description, it just says what it does, which is what exactly? Good question. And I think the easiest way to answer that is just to show you. So join me now, as I Netflix and chill.
Okay, so before we get into the movie, let's level the playing field a little bit by removing all the visuals from this movie clip. Yep, that's right. We're going to watch it together by listening to it. Weird, I know. See if you can keep up with what's actually going on in this movie. Let's do it.
Okay. It's definitely on a train, I think. Space Invaders, maybe. I don't... It's exciting, isn't it? I know exactly what's happening.
Let's stop it there. I got two things from that. It's definitely on a train, and there was definitely a punch. Now let's watch that again, but this time with audio description turned on.

Audio Description:
Mr. Bean wrinkles his forehead and waggles his head from side to side. The boy just stares. He licks the squares of paper and sticks two to his eyelids and one to his tongue.

Shaun:
I know what's going on. This is great.

Audio Description:
He waggles his tongue and flutters his eyelids, making the bits of paper dance around.
The boy slaps him.

Shaun:
Okay, let's stop it there. I will disagree. That was a punch. Never a slap. But did you see the difference, or hear the difference? Ah, steady now.
That was so much better. And that is audio description. Fantastic, fantastic. Okey dokey then. So that was a quick example of what audio description actually is. I mean, it makes such a difference, right? But how do you actually get audio description? How'd you turn it on for the TV show or the movie that you are watching?
It's not quite as simple as it should be, but it's fairly easy nonetheless. Not every TV show that will all have audio description available to you. Now I've made that point clear, let's get onto how I turn on audio description on my various devices. Are you ready to get geeky?
Nah, I'm only joking. Don't worry. You don't have to be a nerd in order to turn on audio description, and thankfully, recently, it's got a lot easier. And that's because you will find the audio description option pretty much in the same place on numerous devices.
For example, let's take my iPhone. I watch most of my media, my TV, my movies, on my iPhone rather than my 55-inch TV in the living room. If I go to settings, accessibility, I will find an audio description option. All I need to do is tap on that to turn it on.
And likewise, if I have an Android smartphone. If I go to settings, accessibility again, I will find a audio description option. Just turn it on. And likewise, on the Apple TV. Settings, accessibility, audio description. Fire TV stick, go to settings, accessibility, audio description.
Are you seeing a pattern there? It actually makes it very easy. Just one option, easy to find, just turn it on. Problem is that not every app take notice of that setting. The big players will take notice, the Netflix, the Disney +. They should see that you've turned it on in your system of your device and should say, ah, okay, he wants audio description. I'll turn that on for him.
Now, hopefully that will get better, and by the time you're watching this, maybe every app will take notice of the universal audio description option. But if not, what do you do? Well, there is certain things to look out for. When you go to, let's say Netflix for example, because it probably is the biggest streaming media platform out there. When you are watching your TV show or movie, if you swipe through the controls on the screen, you will find an option called audio and languages.
And you can double tap on that, and you'll see a list of all the different audio languages that are available for that show or movie. Now, simply swipe through that list of audio tracks, and hopefully if it is in there, you'll find English audio described or whatever language you are using. But the trick is audio described.
Simply double tap on that audio track, click on close, and then when you watch the movie, audio description will be on. Bonus. Now, not every app is the same as Netflix. Obviously there may be a different term on different apps. So if you're using, I don't know, what if you have HBO Max or Disney + or, I don't know, whatever else. Paramount Plus, for example, there may be a setting on there which will be, again, something like audio languages.
Or maybe in the BBCI player over here in the UK where there is an actual button on screen which says audio description. But that's what you're looking out for. That's the key word. Audio. Because basically, audio description is just like a different audio track if you wanted to watch a movie in Spanish or French or whatever rather than English. So that is what you need to look out for if you are watching something or you are using a streaming media service, which doesn't seem to have audio description turned on automatically, even though you've turned it on in your device's system settings.
Got it? I know. That's why I said it's not quite as straightforward as it could be. But still, hopefully, you'll be able to find it and turn it on. Now, what about your standard smart TV? Or even if it's not a smart TV, actually? Your standard TV?
Well, again, if you do have a smart TV, check out your accessibility settings. Go to settings, accessibility, and hopefully... Well, there will be, an audio description option. Just turn it on. But if not, if you don't have that, then check out your TV's remote control.
On the remote control itself, there should be a button and it'll either be labelled audio description or audio or maybe languages. Press that button and either a menu will appear on the screen or it will just automatically, every time you press it, switch through the available languages. And if your TV show has audio description available, you'll hear audio description track being played through.
So there you go. That's all the ways to turn on audio description. I can't recommend it enough. And you may have noticed that way back at the start, I said how this could be useful for not just blind or visually impaired people, but for sighted people as well. And the reason for that is look at the explosion in audiobooks, right? When people's at the gym, not me, but when normal people are at the gym, you fitness freaks, audiobooks are a great thing to listen to.
And it was, back in the day, where audiobooks were purely for the blind or visually impaired. Well, now imagine doing your, I don't know, 30 minute, hour long treadmill session. But instead of listening to an audiobook, you can binge-watch that Netflix series that you just can't put down. And you don't have to watch the screen. You can simply turn on audio description and listen to it.
It's so cool. Any who, that was audio description. That was quick and easy, wasn't it? I loved it. Now, it's not so much about how to turn on audio description. As I said, once you know what to listen out for: audio, languages, accessibility, on whatever device you're using, you'll find it.
It's about making people aware they actually exist, because so many people just never heard of audio description before. And although audio described content, the amount of it, is improving, until it reaches a hundred percent and every TV show and every movie that we want to watch has audio description, then we shouldn't stop shouting about it. Because it needs to improve.
Anyway, that was Shaun of the Shed. I hope you enjoyed it. If you want to get in touch with me, you can email feedback, @doubletaponair.com.
Like and subscribe somehow. Thank you for watching and I will see you next time.
God bless you, governor.