Benefits of Audio Description

For movies, I grew up without Audio Description. My family used to tell me what was going on in a movie. I really appreciated that, and I would quickly begin to memorize the movies they would describe, but that’s all I would watch. I didn’t like to watch anything new unless it was going to be described to me. I didn’t know about Audio Description until I was either 12 or 13, and since then it’s really helped broaden my horizons. I’m now interested in more than just Disney, Pixar, and DreamWorks movies. Of course, I still love those, but I’m more likely to try watching something new if it has Audio Description.

Audio Description is a voice that describes what’s happening in a movie or show. If available, it can be enabled in the audio and subtitles menu of any streaming service. An actual person is describing what you are watching, and another person writes the description for the narrator to read. It’s also offered in theaters as a headset so people with vision impairments can enjoy movie theaters as well.

Growing up I’ve always been interested in Spider-Man. My brother would always watch Spider-Man 2, and I loved the sounds of Doc Ock. He would answer little questions like if I asked him who someone was, but if I asked him to describe a scene, he would get annoyed. My parents tried explaining to him that I’m not actually trying to be annoying, but I’m trying to understand the movie he’s watching. One time when Spider-Man was on, my dad actually blindfolded my brother, and sure enough he started asking the exact same questions I would ask like, “What was that? What are they doing? Why is she screaming?” He didn’t like being blindfolded at first and kept asking to take it off, but then he realized that’s how I feel when I’m trying to watch something when it’s not being described. I loved hearing all the noise during the fight scenes, I just wanted to know what’s actually happening.

Ever since then he got better at describing things as he got older. Growing up he would still get annoyed from time to time, but I think that’s just typical for siblings. Now that I’ve seen all the Spider-Man movies with Audio Description so many times, if we’re talking about it, I’ll correct something he got wrong in a scene and I’m usually correct! Nowadays if I need something described he’ll do it. If he’s playing a game, he’ll describe what’s happening, and tell me if he can’t talk for a second because he’s focusing.

As much as I love going to movie theaters, I’ve had a better experience with Audio Description with streaming services and DVDs. My family and I used to go to AMC, but their Audio Description system was extremely unreliable. It either wouldn’t work and a family member would have to take it back up to the front desk and tell the employees, or it would describe a completely different movie. I hate when that happens because not only does my family member miss part of the movie, but I don’t know what’s going on. These days we go to the B&B Theaters instead. I’ve had much better success with their audio description headphones. The only time it hasn’t worked was when one headset died, and they immediately gave me a new one.

The B&B we go to also has a theater called MX4D, which is a simulator. The chairs move with the action on screen, if the setting is a beach the room will smell like the ocean, there are snow and rain effects, blasts of air and water, and if someone falls there are little taps on your chair depending on how they fall. It also supports Audio Description, and that’s my favorite theater because not only do I get to hear what’s going on, but I feel it too. It’s not for everyone if you get motion sickness very easily, but it’s definitely worth it in my opinion!

My family has always been good about describing things when I needed it. I also have a few sighted friends who are really good about describing as well. I used to be friends with someone who would complain about Audio Description when I would ask her to turn it on, and she would just say, “I don’t know” when I would ask her a question. I understand people not wanting to fully describe a movie, but I have no idea why people would complain about Audio Description. When I showed it to one of my cousins when we were watching Frozen, she closed her eyes and said it’s like a story, so she didn’t need to look at the screen.

My parents have said before even at the theater people would stare at me because I have headphones on, or they would get dirty looks if they have to whisper in my ear what’s going on. Sometimes I wish theaters could have a specific room where they play the movie, but the audio description is out loud as opposed to in headphones. That way people can experience it like I do. They have specific auditoriums for subtitles, so why not audio description?

Audio Description is how I got into Marvel, Star Wars, Harry Potter, and Game of Thrones. I liked bits and pieces of Marvel movies, but I hardly watched any of them all the way through because I didn’t know what was going on. The only one I would willingly watch all the way through without Audio Description was Guardians of the Galaxy. My dad thought I would like it because it has lots of music and the trailer alone was really funny, so he took me to see it when it came out in 2014. We tried the Audio Description headset at AMC, and true to AMC fashion, it didn’t work. My dad had to whisper in my ear what was going on when he could and I didn’t really know what was happening during the action scenes, but I loved the story and the music! Now I’ve seen the first two Guardians of the Galaxy movies so many times with Audio Description I could probably describe them to someone else! The third one just came out at the beginning of 2023 so I’m still working on that one.

Another trilogy of movies I could probably describe to someone else is How to Train Your Dragon. That’s actually the first movie I willingly sat through without knowing what was going on. When my brother and I were younger, my mom rented it on demand for us. She was in the shower for a bit, but when she came back, she was surprised to see me still sitting on the couch watching it. I didn’t know what was going on because my brother didn’t like telling me what was happening while he was trying to watch the movie. I think in his young mind, I was bothering him, and he didn’t understand I was just trying to watch the movie with him. When How To Train Your Dragon 2 came out my mom rented it at Redbox, and the DVD had Audio Description which made me happy. Shortly after that, I bought both movies on DVD because they both have Audio Description, and I loved being able to watch the first one again and actually know what’s going on. There are a couple scenes with no dialogue, and I can actually describe them to someone else as if I could see it.

If anyone who is blind or visually impaired and you think you don’t like movies, I would highly recommend using Audio Description. I just wish it was available with absolutely everything. For example, I’ve recently started watching Naruto with my brother, but the English dub doesn’t have audio description at all. I really like the show and I’m so grateful for my brother describing it to me, but I really wish it had Audio Description, so he didn’t have to. It’s slowly being added to video games as well, and I think that’s really cool. It’s annoying that I have to make sure something has Audio Description first before watching it, but I hope we’ll get to a point where everything has it so it will just become second nature.