Often, audio description technology in cinemas is low quality and staff may not know how to use it. Additionally, the process for making an audio description track is expensive. For example, screening a 30-minute episode for a test audience in order to verify translations costs as much as $52,000. This expense means that many film and television producers opt not to record an audio description track.

Challenges in Making Audio Description Accessible

- Integrated Description
- Separate Audio Files
- Text Based Description

Types of Audio Description

Unlike captions, which aims to objectively transcribe all speech and relevant actions, the process of creating audio descriptions is much more subjective and creative. When creating an audio description, one has to decide which visual details are relevant and how to describe them. These descriptions also have to fit within the spaces and pauses of the standard audio track.

Challenges in Creating Audio Descriptions

As a result of a settlement agreement between Netflix and the American Council of the Blind in 2016, the streaming service now includes audio descriptions for many of its titles. While Netflix makes description tracks for their own original programming, other studios can create their own and send them to the service. As of February 18th of 2022, over 1,800 titles on the service offered audio description in English.

Increasing Availability of Audio Descriptions on Netflix

Many films and television shows receive audio description tracks years after their release date, and some may never get an audio description track. This keeps blind or visually impaired people separate from their peers, who can see the film when it comes out.

Availability of Audio Description

Audio Description is the process of narrating certain actions or details that are normally seen visually, such as what a character is wearing. This process is often provided with films, television shows, stage plays, museums to accommodate people with visual impairments. It is often provided via an alternate audio track on a DVD or a handheld audio player.

Grinnell College

Ensuring that all people have the ability to utilize a product, facility, or service, regardless of any disability they may have. Accessibility may include the modification of existing infrastructure, products, or services or designing them with disabled users in mind.

Accessibility

The differences in norms, lifestyles, and social identities, propagated among disabled individuals. It often forms as a reaction toward past and present attitudes towards disabled communities. It promotes connection, camaraderie, and a shared purpose among those in the community. It also includes a motivation for people with disabilities to address their own civil, social, political, and economic needs

Disability Culture

Snyder, J. (2005, September). Audio Description: The Visual Made Verbal. In International Congress Series (Vol. 1282, pp. 935-939). Elsevier.

Audio Description: The Visual Made Verbal

- Visual Accessibility
- Auditory Accessibility
- Mobility
- Seizures
- Learning and Cognitive Accessibility
- Color Theory for Accessibility


Types of Accessibility

Devices that help maintain or improve the functional capabilities and/or independence of individuals with disabilities.

Assistive Technology (ATs)

Accommodations refer to adaptations that are tailored to a specific individual's unique needs. Whereas, accessibility refers to design choices that are not created with a specific individual in mind but still attempt to make a product, service, or environment accessible to as many people as possible regardless of disability.
Accessibility is a more general approach while accommodations are a more individualized approach.

Difference between Accessibility and Accommodation

Accessibility is often difficult to measure or define, due to the many types of accessibility that exist. A structure may be accessible to someone with one type of disability, but not to someone with another. Additionally, there are many different criteria that can be used to determine or measure accessibility.

Challenges in Determining Accessibility

Captioning is the process of displaying text while a video is being played. Typically, the text will be a transcription of the video's audio, noting who is speaking along with sound effects and important musical cues. This helps to make films, television shows, and other video recordings accessible to those who are hard of hearing or deaf.

Captioning

Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act (29 U.S.C. § 794) requires that the housing owner/landlord is required to pay for any accommodations as well as fix them. The exception is that if the person demonstrates that providing payment for this would be a burden. Section 504 and the ADA requires that governmental bodies will be financially responsible for accommodations for public housing and other federally assisted provided housing, 24 C.F.R. part 8, 24 C.F.R. part 9. 

Payment for Reasonable Accommodation

Created in 1973, the U.S. Access Board is a federal agency that serves to ensure accessibility in federally funded properties/buildings. The agency is responsible for determining accessibility standards when it comes to built environments, vehicles used for transportation, equipment in the medical field, tools for communicating, as well as IT. 

United States Access Board 

Audio Description

Disability, sexual orientation, gender identity, and mental health have a large impact on people's experience in the medical field within the context of health equity. Lived experience and differences should be placed at the forefront of this discussion. These four identities affect health equity through comorbidity and the experience of stigma (directly or indirectly). 

Health Inequity of Disability, Mental Health, Sexual Orientation, and Gender Identity

The COVID 19 pandemic impacted all people in profound ways, however, people with disabilities have been impacted more harshly and at a much higher level than people without disabilities. People of different disabilities were also impacted in varying ways. It is important to keep in mind that while these challenges are COVID specific, many of the remedies can be incorporated into daily life to make day to day living easier. 

Pandemic and Disability: Challenges Faced and Role of Technology

Children with disabilities are much more likely to need mental health support than their non-disabled peers. Despite this, children with disabilities are very rarely diagnosed with and receive treatment for mental health issues. 

Mental Health Services Use Among School-Aged Children with Disabilities

Around the world, one billion people live with disabilities. This report argues that these individuals are being left behind regarding health. Lack of access not only goes against the rights of people with disabilities under international law but also poses a challenge to achieving better health services for one billion people with disabilities, which is essential for achieving Universal Health Coverage (UHC) and Sustainable Development Goal 3. Most of these individuals are in low and middle-income countries and the poorest sections of society. People with disabilities encounter more obstacles in obtaining healthcare services and have less health coverage, leading to poorer health outcomes due to their higher healthcare needs.

Access to Healthcare

The Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) of 1990 is a key piece of U.S. legislation that prohibits discrimination against individuals based on their disability. The law is founded on the principle that people with disabilities are capable of making valuable contributions to organizations. A central requirement of the ADA is that employers must provide reasonable accommodations to help employees with disabilities perform their jobs, so long as these accommodations do not cause undue hardship to the employer.

Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) of 1990

This article examines how people with disabilities experience the design of public urban spaces in a social housing area in Aarhus, Denmark. Drawing on 14 universal design walks conducted with 17 participants, the study shows how ableist design practices create physical, mental, and social constraints in everyday life.

Experiences with disabling barriers in urban spaces

The degree to which an individual culture, be it national, religious, class, education level, or otherwise, has a positive or negative (inclusive or exclusive) response to disabled individuals within their culture. 

Public Attitude Toward Disability

The language and terminology that those within a certain disability group generally prefer. For example, many Deaf individuals prefer to be called "Deaf" or "hard of hearing" rather than "hearing impaired" or "a person who is deaf"

Disability Language

Although the sexual behavior of those with disabilities is often stigmatized or ignored by the public, studies have shown that those with disabilities generally still experience the same physical, sexual, and romantic desires that those without disabilities experience.

Disability and Sexuality

Working within disability studies and towards more inclusive educational opportunities requires both humility and immense activism. It is important to acknowledge the work is frequently going to be challenged. 

Public Attitude within the work of Disability 

The formation of an individual's disability identity relies on both social and psycholgocial factors related to acceptance and meaning/purpose. Thus, the development of this identity is dependant on interpersonal (social) and intrapersonal (psychological) awarness. 

Defining Disability Identity Development

Since most children with disabilities live into adulthood, a growing amount of research has been dedicated to analyzing the life course outcomes for these individuals. Studies show that while there are often more negative mental and physical health outcomes for individuals with disabilities, more and more people are experiencing similar life trajectories to their peers. This is due to similar opportunities with fulfilling age appropriate adult social roles and positive life experiences. 

Pathways Toward Positive Psychosocial Outcomes and Mental Health for Youth with Disabilities

Disability advocacy is defined as acting or speaking in ways that align with and protect the rights of people with disabilities. There are many different forms of advocacy and it can occur at multiple different levels. 

Defining Disability Advocacy 



People with disabilities can find it more difficult to eat healthy and be physically active. This might be due to: 
- A lack of healthy food choices.
- Difficulty with chewing or swallowing food, or its taste or texture.
- Medications that can contribute to weight gain, weight loss, and changes in appetite.
- Physical limitations that can reduce a person’s ability to exercise.
- Pain.
- A lack of energy.
- A lack of accessible environments (for example, sidewalks, parks, and exercise equipment) that can enable exercise.
- A lack of resources (for example, money, transportation, and social support from family, friends, neighbors, and community members).

Disability and Obesity

A major critique of the current disability studies discipline relates to its essentialist and binary approach to understanding disability and the subjective disability experience. 

Disability Studies and Intersectionality


A field created from the merger of Disability studies, Black studies, postcolonial studies, and feminist studies  that focuses on the lives of Black disabled people and the relationship between race and disability as systems of privilege and oppression. In particular, there is a focus on how disability has appeared among Black people, how disability has been treated and understood within Black communities, how blackness and disability have been discursively linked in various cultures, and how disability an be understood as an identity experience and political category that has been conceptualized, and approached differently by Black activists and intellectuals than it has been by white activists and how this difference proposes and alternative framework of viewing disability. 

Black Disability Studies

Disability Justice is a framework that was developed in the mid-2000s by disabled people of color, disabled queer people, and disabled queer people of color, including Patty Berne, Leroy Moore, Leah Lakshmi Piepzna-Samarasinha, and Mia Mingus and groups including Sins Invalid, the Disability Justice Collective, and Azola Story.

Disability Justice 

A subsection of disability studies theory, whose name was inspired by queer theory, that emphasizes creating a theoretical approach to disability that looks at how disability functions as an ideology, a paradigm, an epistemology, and a system of oppression in addition to an identity experience.

Crip Theory 

Engagement with disability as a social and political category and embodiment rather than as a solely personal or medical experience.

Disability Politics

- The disabled population has a large percentage of children, with one third being children. 
  - Many of these disabilities are preventable, but lack of access to healthcare makes treatment difficult, resulting in 65 percent of disabilities affecting children being preventable. 
  - Even more alarming is the research that 98 percent of children with disabilities in low-income countries (LICs) do not attend school.
- Ten percent of the world's population has a sensory, physical, or intellectual disability. 
- Once taking family members into account, about 25 percent of people in the world are impacted by disabilities.
- Two thirds of all people with disabilities live in LICs. Global disability is rapidly increasing, mainly due to population growth in less developed countries, and this further shows the alarming disparity of disabled populations across the world. 

Statistics of Disabilities Across the World

In 2009, ⅔+ of homeless adults had some disability or mental, substance abuse disorder. However, many adults who are diaabled and homeless qualify for SSI and or SSDI support, which would provide benefits that would help secure housing and get recipients necessary treatment. Though, despite being eligible, many people are homeless do not apply for SSI and SSDI Programs. There has been limited research on initiatives aimed at increasing access and benefits for people with disabilities who are homeless.

Disability and Homelessness

NLTS and NLTS-2 shows a matriculation of students with learning disabilities into postsecondary education rose from 11.4% in 1990 to 34.5% in 2005. These students’ success have been notably limited given a 70% dropout rate, lower GPAs, and enrollment in easier programs compared to their non-disabled counterparts.

Learning Disability and Postsecondary Education

-  the community is very supportive of members that are blind and deaf. 
- There is resources available to support deaf and blind individuals. 
- American sign language (ASL) or augmentative and alternative communication devices (AAC)- communication. 
- Diversity in the deaf community 
- Hearing aids or cochlear implants for hearing 
- sensory deprivation- natural reduction of natural stimuli involving lights or five senses. 
-Deaf and blind students can access deaf school systems and higher levels of education. 

American Deaf and Blind Culture

The relationship between sex and disability has been a subject of study for over two decades. Yet, there remains no clear consensus on how sex influences disability and through which mechanisms this influence occurs. Despite the well-documented higher prevalence of self-reported disability among women compared to men, the effect of sex on disability varies significantly depending on the measures used and the covariates considered. 

The Role of Sex on Disability

When discussing disability, the focus is usually on basic accommodations such as interpreting, captions, or ramps. However, accommodations alone cannot guarantee real access for individuals with disabilities. That's why educators and professionals in schools and related fields must educate students about disabilities, end negative stereotypes, and ensure accessibility for disabled individuals. The goal is to recognize disability as a part of diversity and culture rather than a medical condition based on diagnosis.

Disability Culture at Schools

This research presents real-life knowledge about the connections between disability, sexuality, and gender equality issues in different Asian countries. It looks at the experiences of women and LGBTIQ people with disabilities, and their rights and empowerment. The research aims to help local disabled persons’ organizations and NGOs use human rights laws and work together with academics and human rights advocates. 

Asian Disability Studies

Cerebral palsy is a condition that affects movement and muscle control. It occurs when the brain is damaged before birth, during birth, or in early childhood. This damage makes it difficult for the body to move smoothly and in coordination. Some people with cerebral palsy have trouble walking, while others need help with daily tasks like eating or talking. The condition does not get worse over time, but affects everyone differently. There is no cure, but therapy, treatments, and assistive devices can help people with cerebral palsy live full and independent lives.

Cerebral Palsy

According to the text, the majority of college students who have a disability use social media daily. The average time spent amounts to 3.4 hours a day, this high usage is consistent across different types of disabilities, revealing the trend of social media’s prominent role in the lives of those who participated in the study. Participants had on average 4.8 social media accounts. Approximately 36% used social media primarily for social interaction, 17% for information seeking, and 17% for entertainment.


Social Media Use Is Nearly Universal Among College Students with Disabilities


Students from the study who are labeled as having some kind of disability possessed a wide range in the number of social media accounts they held, some having one account, others having as many as thirteen social media accounts. On average, students maintained around five accounts, which indicates diverse engagement across platforms and does not provide any major insight into social media trends in disabled populations.

Number of Social Media Accounts Varies Widely


The study found that the majority of students they surveyed used social media mostly for social interaction purposes, information seeking and entertainment were secondary purposes. These uses emphasize the significance of human connection regardless of disability status and the importance of being able to access information in their daily lives.

Primary Purposes of Social Media Use Among Students with Disabilities


According to the study findings, the use of social media for educational purposes, such as course-related communication, is linked to stronger social connections and shows an improved readiness for careers. This conclusion suggests that academic use of social media can be beneficial in enhancing outcomes in students with disabilities' college careers.

Social Media Learning Positively Impacts Social Connectedness and Career Preparedness


Students who spend more overall time on social media, regardless of intention or purpose, claimed to experience a lack of social connectedness and overall had lower hope for future employment. It can be said that overuse of social media may hinder social and career development in students with disabilities.

Excessive Time on Social Media Negatively Affects Social Connectedness and Career Hope


Addiction to social media showed a correlation with higher GPA and greater social connectedness, but did not reflect higher preparedness for a career. This shows that the results of social media on students with disabilities are not black and white, there are both positive and negative impacts on the surveyed population. 

Social Media Addiction Shows Mixed Effects


Younger students had higher social media addiction as well as better academic and social outcomes. Female students reported higher hope for work success, suggesting demographic differences do influence experiences.

Demographics Impact Social Media Use and College Outcomes

Statistics show an increase in college enrollment, but in spite of this, the article states that students with disabilities graduate less often and face more obstacles to employment in comparison to other students. 

Students with Disabilities Face Lower Graduation Rates and Career Challenges


Social media use has different influences on academic, social, and career success in students with disabilities. Understanding how social media influences students with disabilities can allow for more effective support strategies to be put into place.

Social Media Use and Student Outcomes

Social media can assist students with disabilities in fostering connections and preparing them for their future careers when it is used for learning and networking purposes. Based on the study findings, spending an excessive amount of time on social media for fun or distractions is what leads to feelings of isolation. Encouraging students to use social media more moderately can help them reap more benefits instead of negatively impacting their mental health and career goals.

Social Media Use as a Tool for Empowerment

This systematic review explores invisible disabilities in higher education, focusing on students' disclosure decisions and their academic impacts. Students often choose not to disclose their invisible disabilities due to stigma and previous negative experiences, creating a paradox where "what is unseen does not exist." This non-disclosure leads to substantial academic and personal challenges for affected students. The research identifies common barriers these students face and examines factors that promote their academic success. Personal resilience and informal support networks play crucial roles in student outcomes. However, the review emphasizes that systemic institutional change is essential, particularly through inclusive teaching practices such as Universal Design for Learning and mandatory faculty training. These systemic approaches are necessary to transform risks into opportunities and ensure all students can thrive in higher education environments.

When what is unseen does not exist: disclosure, barriers and supports for students with invisible disabilities in higher education

This paper explores three studies that discuss how the timing of group-membership entry—whether a disability is congenital ("born that way") or acquired ("became that way")—influences stigma. This research uniquely compares judgments of people with congenital disability to those with acquired disability, a distinction largely unexamined in previous disability stigma research.

Stigma Towards Congenital Versus Acquired Disability

Using a singular case study design, this study, unravels the complexity and  in-depth the meaning of lived experiences of a single demarcated person from multiple perspectives, revealing the historical life story of a person with intellectual and physical disabilities in the context of the Nazi’s euthanasia practices.

A Case Study of Nazi’s Eugenic Practices

This study explores ​​how young Indian women with visible physical impairments in India’s metropolitan cities construct beauty, experience embodiment, and, most importantly, how they challenge received views on physical attractiveness. 

‘Disabled and beautiful’: young women’s negotiations of beauty and body ideals

This study explores research concerning the identities of professional artists with intellectual disabilities. This research was conducted to further our understanding of the intersections of the arts and identity affirmation within the intellectual disability community. Specific attention is paid to the voices of individuals with intellectual disabilities and the words they used to describe their own experiences.

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