In 2014, the American Council of the Blind sent a letter to Netflix that expressed concern about the accessibility of their audio descriptions. Both the American Council of the Blind and Netflix decided to avoid a costly lawsuit and instead negotiated a settlement.

Settlement with Netflix and American Council of the Blind

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.

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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.

Audio Description

Charlson, K. (2016, 06). President's Message: Netflix to Enhance Access for Customers Who Are Blind. Braille Forum, 54, 2-4. https://grinnell.idm.oclc.org/login?url=https://www.proquest.com/magazines/presidents-message-netflix-enhance-access/docview/1820542273/se-2?accountid=7379

Netflix to Enhance Access for Customers Who Are Blind

Brack, F. (2022, February 18). Netflix Audio Described Titles. The Audio Description Project. Retrieved February 21, 2022, from https://adp.acb.org/netflixad.html 

Netflix Audio Described Titles

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

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.

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