By Diane Brauner on July 16, 2018
Audio Description is an additional narration track that provides auditory information about visual content essential for comprehension to viewers who are visually impaired or blind. Audio description is typically added during existing pauses in the dialogue.
There are third-party apps that contain audio descriptions within the app or video player. For movies and TV shows that you download, you can manually activate audio descriptions so that audio descriptions automatically play.
iOS Devices
Go to Settings > General > Accessibility > Audio Descriptions (in media section) and turn on Prefer Audio Descriptions.
Android Devices
Currently, Android devices do not have a similar default setting that enables audio descriptions and Google Play does not provide any information about audio described videos.
The Audio Description Project shares a list of streaming video provider options and how you can access these videos.
For more information about accessible streaming videos, view 5 Video Streaming Services Doing Accessibility Right. This article discusses audio descriptions by Netflix, Amazon Video, iTunes & Apple TV, Watch ABC, and PBS: Passport.
Read more about audio descriptions, Fast Facts about Audio Description here.
Want to experience an audio described movie? The video below is an audio described clip from the movie, Lion King,