"Why aren't more DVDs available with audio description?" you ask.  Even though there are movie theaters in the Triangle area that offer audio description with first-run movies (see Making Your Neighborhood Movie Theater Accessible), most of these audio description tracks don't make it to the DVD release. 

So why aren't these tracks just copied onto the DVDs?  (Only two DVDs released in 2005 had audio description out of 48 first-run films with AD.  You can order these two and a few others from Amazon -- see our DVDs With Audio Description Tracks listing.)

Mary Watkins of the Media Access Group at WGBH attempts to answer these questions for us in this "MoPix Weekly Movie Access Updates" email newsletter from January 9, 2004.  (To subscribe to their newsletter, see http://ncam.wgbh.org/mailinglist.html.)

ABCs OF DVS ON DVDs

My oh my, I don't know whether everyone and their brother got a DVD player for Christmas or whether the moon has moved into the house of digital home entertainment, DVD rising, but we're answering multiple inquiries each day regarding the lack of description on DVD releases.  This heightened interest was accompanied this week by an article in the Kansas City Star by columnist Aaron Barnhardt on the same subject.  The article can be found at www.tvbarn.com (the direct URL to the article is:  http://www.tvbarn.com/archives/017808.html).

In any case, folks want to know what's going on, why DVDs continue to be released without a description track when a perfectly good description track has been created for the film in theaters.  Largely we think it's a matter of awareness on the part of the studio folks who are making decisions about which features to include on DVDs.  Lending your voice to the effort will help.  If you're so inclinded, send a letter to the studios (contact info can be found on the MoPix site at http://ncam.wgbh.org/mopix/studios.html).  While you're at it, send a copy of the letter to us here at WGBH (access@wgbh.org, or Media Access Group at WGBH, 125 Western Ave, Boston, MA 02134), and we'll make sure it works overtime by sharing it directly with the folks in Hollywood who can make the access pieces all come together.  For a list of the DVDs we have provided captions and descriptions for, visit http://main.wgbh.org/wgbh/pages/mag/resources/accessible-dvds.html.

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