http://www.tvbarn.com/archives/017808.html

http://www.joeclark.org/access/dvd/


DVD makers blind to access problems
posted by Aaron Barnhart January 06, 2004 02:06 PM

Not that it matters to you, but for the millions of Americans who
have sight problems, the DVD revolution isn't amounting to much more
than a hill of beans. And Hollywood could easily be doing so much
more to help them.

You're probably aware that most home video these days is closed
captioned. What you don't know is that the same movie studios also
pay for a process called audio description (sometimes it's called
video description), in which a narrator describes some of the visual
action during breaks in the dialogue. It's unobtrusive and cheap to
make (about $5,000 an hour) and the extra details even help people
like me who have no trouble seeing the screen.

You can hear audio description on headphones supplied by a specially
equipped movie theater. Last year AMC theaters installed the system
at the Town Center 20 cineplex in Leawood. I love it, and so do my
friends in the blind and visually handicapped community. (It's on all
the time but on screen No. 3 only. You can also watch captioning in
No. 3 using a special reflector shield that you stick in your cup
holder.)

Here's the kicker. When those same movies come out on DVD, the
captions are included, but what about the descriptions? They're
nowhere to be seen -- or heard. The number of DVDs with audio
descriptions is so pitifully few that Joe Clark, a Canadian expert on
video accessibility, can maintain the entire list on his personal Web
site.

One such title is "Abraham and Mary Lincoln: A House Divided," a
six-hour PBS documentary series re-airing this week on KCPT. (Part 2
is at 9 tonight on Channel 19; check local listings for your area.)
The DVD came out in 2002 and features not only an optional
description track -- which you turn on just like a commentary track
-- but also talking menus so you can find your way around the DVD
without relying on the display.

In most cases, studios have already paid for audio descriptions by
the time their movies go to video. The extra audio takes up hardly
any space on the DVD. And with so many people dealing with
compromised vision, it's an easy way to do good and, one would think,
fuel DVD sales.

Perhaps Hollywood feels it's selling enough DVDs already. Yeah, that's it.

-------------------------------------------------------------
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