What is Audio Description?

Audio Describers recruited and trained by Arts Access are making local theatrical productions more accessible to people with vision problems.  Now people with visual disabilities are better able to "see" a play or other artistic performance.

Audio Description involves the accessibility of the visual images of theater and other art forms for people who are blind or visually impaired.  It is a narration service (provided at no additional charge to the patron) that attempts to describe what the sighted person takes for granted -- those theatrical images that a person who is blind or has low vision formerly could only experience through the whispered asides from a sighted companion.

Above right, audio describer Linda McCarley uses a stenographer's mask mike to describe. Left, Brian and Linda Lewis listen to audio description, provided by audio describer Susi Michelau, via a small earpiece connected to a handheld receiver.  This particular show was a modern dance production by Even Exchange Dance Theater, though most of our audio descriptions are provided at live theatre productions. Below right, patron Kathy Brack receives her earpiece and receiver from equipment manager Chuck Sumner in the lobby.

In theaters, in museums, and accompanying film and video presentations, Audio Description is commentary and narration which guides the listener through the presentation with concise, objective descriptions of new scenes, settings, costumes, body language, and "sight gags," all slipped in between portions of dialogue or songs.  Found to be not only a significant technique for making the arts more accessible for an important but underserved constituency, Audio Description can be viewed as an aesthetic advance for the visual and performing arts. 

Arts Access concentrates on audio describing live theater productions, but occasionally other events are described.  You will find a link to the current schedule at the top of each page on this website.

"The service you provide is wonderful and opens up the world of theatre to the blind."
- spouse of a patron, July 2004

Read an article extolling the value of audio description.  (This link changes periodically.  If the link fails, please notify the webmaster.)  And here is an article on an audio description training class.

The current symbol for audio description is something like the following, which has been adapted by Arts Access to include the text "Audio Description":

When television programs, movies, or videos are audio described, the technique is called Video Description.  A symbol similar to the one shown above (or just a D, or a D with sound waves after it) usually appears on the screen in the lower left at the start of the program or is printed somewhere on a DVD box.  For television, the video described sound track is presented via the Second Audio Program, called SAP.  This requires the viewer to use the television or VCR setup options to select the SAP audio channel.  For a DVD, the player's menu option must be used to navigate to the audio described soundtrack.  For more information on video description, see our Video Description page.

Audio described first-run movies have been available in the Triangle area since May 2006.  See our Movie Theater Accessibility web page for more information or the bottom of our Performance Schedule.

"The audio description by members of Arts Access made the experience a rich one for me.  Because of my limited vision, I would not have had the full experience without this description.  Before the performance one describer gave me information about the opera, the major performers and the sets.  During the opera another person described the action taking place on the stage while a third describer read the supertitles which I couldn't see.  Without being able to see the stage well or to read the supertitles, following the opera would have been impossible for me.  Arts Access supplied an excellent service which I was delighted to use."
- from  a thank-you note to the manager of the Opera Company of NC
for sponsoring audio description of Turandot in May 2004

For more information about audio description, please visit the Audio Description International website.

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