An Overview of Video Description: History, Benefits, and Guidelines Jaclyn Packer, Katie Vizenor, and Joshua A. Miele Abstract: This article provides an overview of the historical context in which video description services have evolved in the United States, a summary of research demonstrating benefits to people with vision loss, an overview of current video description guidelines, and information about current software programs that are available to produce video description. Although surprising to some, it has been the arts—any medium that includes visual shown that people who are visually im­ information that is not obvious to those who paired (that is, those who are blind or are only listening or have trouble seeing. have low vision) are as likely to own Description that is delivered live, such as televisions and other entertainment tech­ that provided to theater goers, is often re­ nology as those who are sighted and to ferred to as “audio description.” This article watch television for almost as many hours will focus on the description of video con­ per week as those who do not have vision tent rather than live description. loss (Packer & Kirchner, 1997). Although A recent piece of legislation in the much of the information provided by tele­ United States marked a pivotal moment in vision and other video sources is ex­ the history of video description in the pressed through audio, a lot of visual in­ United States. The Twenty-First Century formation is missed by people who have Communications and Video Accessibility vision loss. Video description, a tech­ Act of 2010 was passed, requiring certain nique to add additional audio information television entities to include video de­ that elaborates on visual content, was de­ scription in a portion of their prime time veloped in order to make video content and children’s programming. This re­ more accessible. Typically, the extra au­ quirement began in 2012, and is sched­ dio is inserted into the video so that it uled to expand more broadly throughout does not interfere with essential dialogue the next decade. (A full listing of current and sounds. television programming that includes Video description can be used for tele­ video description is available from the vision, film, Internet videos, theater, and American Foundation for the Blind [2015]; the full text of the legislation and This article was produced under a grant from the subsequent regulations are available from U.S. Department of Education (H327J110005). the Federal Communications Commis­ However, this article does not necessarily rep­ resent the policy of the U.S. Department of sion [2010].) Education and endorsement by the federal As this monumental change is proceed­ government should not be assumed. ing, it is appropriate to document the state ©2015 AFB, All Rights Reserved Journal of Visual Impairment & Blindness, March-April 2015 83 of the field of video description, describe The following historical milestones for its history to the present day, detail its ben­ video description were culled from con­ efits to people with vision loss, relate its versations with individuals involved in generally accepted guidelines and practices the video description field as well as from in the field, and report on available software other sources (Audio Description Coali­ to facilitate the process of creating video tion, 2013a; Audio Description Project, description. In an effort to be as compre­ 2010; Described and Captioned Media hensive as possible, the authors examined Program, 2013a; Packer & Gutierrez, the literature and consulted with experts 1997; Snyder, 2007; Video Programming from the Description Leadership Network, Accessibility Advisory Committee, 2012; a group of professionals and organizations Washington Ear, nd). that specialize in video description, which was assembled in 2011 by the Video De­ CONCEIVING THE IDEA scription Research and Development Cen­ The idea of making television or video ter at Smith-Kettlewell. accessible to people who are visually im­ paired by adding additional audio was History of video description conceived by several people, reportedly One can easily imagine that long before independently of each other. The earliest television and films were around, people idea for formal video description came who were sighted would provide critical about in the mid-1960s, when Chet Av­ information and describe visual surround­ ery, an employee at the U.S. Department ings to people who were visually im­ of Education, made a suggestion that in paired. Similarly, it is reasonable to as­ sume that since the advent of film and addition to captioning for people who are television, people who are visually im­ hard of hearing there ought to be descrip­ paired have attended movies and listened tion for people who are visually impaired, to television along with friends and fam­ and later encouraged blindness advocacy ily members, and that these companions organizations to seek funding to add de­ described some of the crucial visual in­ scription to film. formation so the person with vision loss The first concrete work on video de­ could understand and enjoy this recreational scription happened in the mid-1970s. and often educational activity. As early as Gregory Frazier, who was earning a grad­ 1951, the Hollywood movie Bright Victory uate degree in broadcasting, indepen­ portrayed a war veteran who is blind in a dently thought of the concept of video scene at a movie theater where his girlfriend description and wrote his master’s thesis explains to him what is going on visually in in 1975 on the topic, presenting a descrip­ the film, much to the annoyance of other tion narrative for the film The Autobiog­ patrons sitting nearby. With the modern de­ raphy of Miss Jane Pittman. At that time, velopment of video description, people with Frazier’s idea was to simulcast the de­ vision loss who watch described program­ scribed audio over the radio while the ming are no longer dependent on the assis­ program was broadcast on television. Fra­ tance of people who are sighted to under­ zier attempted to obtain funding for his stand the content. idea, but was unsuccessful at that time. 84 Journal of Visual Impairment & Blindness, March-April 2015 ©2015 AFB, All Rights Reserved In 1981, Margaret Rockwell (later Pf­ obtain grants from various sources to pro­ anstiehl), the founder of Metropolitan vide further video description. Washington Ear, a radio reading service That same year, Jim Stovall formed in the Washington, DC, area, also inde­ Narrative Video Network, a venture to pendently came up with the idea of de­ describe older television programs and scription, and started a project providing videos. Later, the name of the company audio description for live theater. She was changed to Narrative Television Net­ invited an acquaintance, Cody Pfanstiehl, work (NTN). NTN partnered with Nos­ to work with her on the project. In 1982, talgia Cable and The Family Channel to Margaret Pfanstiehl had the idea of pro­ provide description for classic films. viding description for television pro­ Also in 1988, Gregory Frazier, in part­ grams, and contacted Public Broadcasting nership with August Coppola, brother of Service (PBS). PBS agreed to allow her to film director Francis Ford Coppola, simulcast a description track through her formed the Audio Description Institute in radio reading service. San Francisco under a grant from the San Barry Cronin of WGBH, the local PBS Francisco Foundation. Their describers station in Boston, had a background in were trained by the Pfanstiehls. Three closed captioning for individuals who are years later, Frazier and his partner, Ida C. deaf or hard of hearing, and was working Johnson, founded a nonprofit organiza­ on ideas to use a new television technol­ tion, AudioVision, which offered video ogy, the Second Audio Program (SAP), description, and they conducted the first which was part of the stereo television research on the effectiveness of video de­ standard known as Multichannel Televi­ scription in educational videos. sion Sound (MTS). He developed the idea The television broadcast industry rec­ of video description in 1984, indepen­ ognized the achievement of the early dently of Frazier and Margaret Pfanstiehl. work of these video description pioneers by awarding the Emmy—an award rec­ CREATION OF THE FIRST VIDEO ognizing excellence in the television in­ DESCRIPTION SERVICES dustry bestowed by the U.S. Academy Three different video description entities of Television Arts & Sciences—for were formed in 1988. As Barry Cronin Outstanding Achievement in Technical/ began to work on the idea of video de­ Engineering Development to Margaret scription, he heard about the Pfanstiehls’ Pfanstiehl, PBS, NTN, and Gregory work and asked them to work with Frazier in 1990 (Washington Ear, nd). WGBH on creating a national video de­ scription service by training describers. LEGISLATION AND FUNDING Descriptive Video Service (DVS) was es­ Advocacy for federal funding of video de­ tablished at WGBH in 1988. With the scription began in the late 1980s. WGBH help of the Pfanstiehls, DVS conducted a worked with the American Foundation for one-year national test of video description the Blind (AFB) and, in particular, AFB’s on American Playhouse, which was the then-director of governmental relations, first television show to be televised with Scott Marshall, to pursue federal legisla­ video description. DVS was then able to tion to provide funding. In 1989, the ©2015 AFB, All Rights Reserved Journal of Visual Impairment & Blindness, March-April 2015 85 Department of Education appropriated description report obtaining numerous funds for video description, which were benefits from it. distributed in 1991. The Department of The Described and Captioned Media Education awarded funds to WGBH to Program (DCMP) of the National Asso­ expand the amount of described program­ ciation of the Deaf received funding from ming on PBS and to develop a venture to the Department of Education in 2008 to record and sell described films on video.