Tuesday, April 14, 2015

Netflix gives blind fans of Daredevil the audio descriptions they asked for

Audio descriptions are coming soon to Netflix's other original shows

Netflix is doing more to make its service accessible to blind customers and those who are visually impaired. Today, the company announced that it's rolling out audio descriptions, which are narration tracks that describe "what is happening on-screen, including physical actions, facial expressions, costumes, settings and scene changes." The first series to get audio descriptions is Netflix's newest (and very good) original series Daredevil, and it's something comic book fans have been asking for. To feature an original series starring a blind protagonist — while not doing all it could to accommodate blind customers — has recently put Netflix's lacking accessibility options through fresh scrutiny.
But the company says audio descriptions will quickly be expanded beyond just Daredevil to include House of CardsOrange is the New BlackUnbreakable Kimmy Schmidt, and Marco Polo. Narration tracks for those shows will be added in the "coming weeks," and Netflix says customers can access them like any other alternate audio track. Netflix isn't stopping with its own original programming though, pledging that it's "actively committed to increasing the number of audio-visual translations for movies and shows" in a blog post today. Discussions with studios and content owners to move that effort along are ongoing, and Netflix is "also exploring adding audio description into other languages in the future."