I had a very lovely and productive meeting yesterday with accessibility reps from an entertainment company. I won’t reveal which one, but I’ve been critical of some of their work, in terms of the audio description, and for things that the community at large would agree on. they also are a company that has an opportunity to do better, and the feedback I got was that it would be helpful if there was more of a guide as to what they should describe in terms of what blind audiences want. I went with some really basic and broad rules to start.

#1- if you are making a sequel, reboot, requel, or revival of a franchise/series, and the original doesn’t have audio description, the franchise should be described start to finish. I’m always perplexed at shows and movies that start description late in the series, as if we’re expected to skip the whole first half. I explained that on our end, as blind consumers, it is more problematic for us because there’s this unspoken responsibility for blind users to use the accessibility created for us, but also expecting us to start in the middle, or end, or a series or franchise is fruitless. then it looks like they created audio description for something no blind users wanted, but the reality is they wanted to see the whole franchise. could you imagine if the only Star Wars film with audio description was Rise Of Skywalker? Or how about the only Harry Potter film being deathly Hallows part 2? Wanna jump in on Season 22 of grey’s Anatomy? How about a legacy sequel like Top Gun Maverick, if Top Gun is inaccessible to you?

#2- In addition to common sense solutions listed above, I also mentioned that their brands should be audio described. Specifically, those things that they use as tentpoles, tenants in their foundation, whatever company this might have been. Imagine if there was no audio description, this would be like reminding MGM they have the rights to James Bond, or reminding Warner Bros they have the rights to Batman. Broadly, there are companies that have these icons they keep mining over and over, but their entire body of work isn’t audio described. This could help to bring franchises like King Kong and Godzilla closer, or even some of these legacy horror franchises with spotty description like Scream, Halloween, Nightmare On elm Street, and others. There’s an upcoming Camp Crystal Lake series, but the entire Friday The 13th franchise lacks audio description. That’s the disconnect.

And it was one of hopefully more meetings, so I’m hoping to continue to move people forward if even just a little.

TV Shows Watched: Splinter cell: Deathwatch: S1E1 (Netflix) with audio description, Gen V: S2E7 (Amazon) with audio description, Wayward: S1E5 (Netflix) with audio description, Dr Seuss’s Horton: S1E2 (Netflix) with audio description, Billy The Kid: S1E3 (MGM Plus) with audio description, Murdock: S1E1 (Disney Plus) with audio description, Name That Tune: S4E5 (Hulu) no audio description

Splinter Cell: Deathwatch- I’ve been waiting forever to see an adaptation of Splinter Cell for something. If this is all I get, fine. It’s a solid adult animation action show with Liev Schreiber, which has already been picked up for a second season. The audio description was well written, but perhaps a little flat given the intensity of the material.

Gen V- Loved this. We get right up to a point where it looks like a bloodbath will happen in the finale. I won’t, I can’t spoil anything. Loved the description, with the highlight probably being the whack a mole sequence, which felt hard to describe.

Wayward- the kids run the asylum, and our detective is worried about his wife, but also finds a lead that may lead him unexpected places. A great mystery. They are so underutilizing Toni Collette that I hope she gets her moment.

Billy The Kid- Now older, Billy is trying to go legit, but the world just doesn’t treat him like a normal human being, and essentially corruption leaves him as a byproduct, where he figures out how to survive on his own. Solid audio description. No complaints.

Dr Seuss’s Horton- I can’t finish this. I’m too old. I finished Red Fish Blue Fish but this really is a preschool show. And it runs long, instead of splitting into two smaller episodes.The audio description is really good,but Red Fish Blue Fish just had more opportunities for audio description due to the lack of dialogue and singing.

Murdock- A true crime show. It starts off at the murder, and we jump back in time to slowly work out how we got here. Sometimes, generational wealth isn’t a good thing. Sometimes, it is an entitlement that leads people who are unexceptional to believe they can get away with exceptional circumstances. shoutout to Roy Samuelson who did the narration. Some solid moments, especially right at the beginning.

Name That Tune- That moment, at the end of the second pair, right before one of them is eliminated, must have been soul crushing. the song title has to be 100%, and they lost because they added “Ain’t” to the title. Brutal.