Adding Audio Description: Does it Make a Difference?

Abstract

A television viewing experiment—preceded and followed by interviews about attitudes, usual television viewing patterns and demographics—was conducted with 111 legally blind adults who were convened in groups. The research examined the impact of watching television science programs with and without audio description. The experiment showed that respondents gained and retained more information from watching programs with description. Respondents reported that description makes programs more enjoyable, interesting, and informative; and that they are more comfortable talking with sighted people about programs that had been described. The positive impact of added description was greater for the program with less narration in its original format.