[blindkid] Described Videos

[Susie Cooper]

You probably want to check out www.blindmicemart.com.  The Mice have a 
collection of movies for you to download Free.  The movies are audio with 
description and are in mp3 format. 


And you can also check out www.blindsidereviews.com.   This is the home for the 
nation's only blind movie critic. Jay Forry's reviews are syndicated across the 
nation on various radio stations and in newspapers. His unique style and sense 
of humor make for entertaining and insightful critiques that give you a heads-up 
on what's hot and what's not.

Regarding the DVD's you want to look in the back and make sure that they say 
DVS.  I know that the recent children movies from Dreamworks and Paramount are 
starting to be descriptive.

Hope this is helpful.

Susie Cooper


________________________________
From: Richard Holloway <rholloway at gopbc.org>
To: "NFBnet Blind Kid Mailing List, (for parents of blind children)" 
<blindkid at nfbnet.org>
Sent: Thu, May 26, 2011 9:57:31 AM
Subject: [blindkid] Described Videos

I'm curious to know what luck others are having with described videos, 
especially broadcast TV programs. Apart from described VHS tapes which are 
no-brainers--  (they only have one audio track, so if they are described, the 
description is always "on") I've had pretty poor luck finding programs. Problem 
is, VHS is pretty much a think of the past, and even described VHS titles were 
never in great supply as far as we could determine...

Watching described programs on TV doesn't seem that confusing in theory-- you 
access the SAP audio, just like you would for something like a Spanish simulcast 
or such. The thing is, I can never seem to find programs that are actually 
running with a description, and I can't seem to see what programs are supposed 
to be described in most listing either.

I know that Sesame Street is supposedly offering descriptions now, but I have 
tried several times, including this morning to access a second audio channel and 
nothing. This being on what appears to be a current ("first run", or at lest 
copyright in 2011) show (some older episodes have probably not been reworked 
with descriptions).

I have read that sometimes cable messes with the audio and doesn't rebroadcast 
the alternative audio for technical (apparently meaning COST) reasons (be it 
spanish, described audio, etc,) so this morning, I had setup an antenna and I 
checked Sesame Street, comparing the Cable feed to the Over the Air version. 


The short version of what I found today is that "Over the Air" showed to have 
two different English sound tracks but I could only access one, while the exact 
same program, running at the exact same time on cable (same station) showed to 
have English & Spanish. I could access both, but "Spanish" was actually running 
with no audio at all.

As to finding DVD's, I find certain lists on-line of programs offered, but when 
I go to buy the titles, often they have no described audio listed on the box (no 
symbol and nothing in the alternative languages list), so presumably some titles 
are shipped with some versions having described audio and some without. I wonder 
if there is a distinct ISBN (or UPC or whatever they use) for the described 
versions. Does anyone know?

The most recent titles in question are all of the Harry Potter films. Warner 
Brothers says they are described on some web sites, but I can't find a single 
version or listing (I've checked several stores plus on-line) which actually 
says that DVS audio is included-- not in the audio track listings, and there is 
no little "A)))" symbol, etc. (For non-print readers there is a capitol print A 
followed by what looks like progressively smaller right parentheses-- I think it 
is supposed to be sound waves coming from the "A")

As to Sesame Street and other PBS offerings, I sent an inquiry to our main PBS 
affiliate here in Georgia. It has been a week or so and thus far, no response.

I tried our local library system. Out f the 100 or so titles with DVS, I found 
two that looked to be of possible interest to an 8-year-old. I have requested 
them but they have yet to arrive.

We tried going to a theater a while back to see a described movie as well. They 
gave us wireless headsets to hear the audio description, but despite sitting 
exactly in the "best" seats to pick up the audio (from what we were told) and 
despite swapping out headsets more than once, mostly we just got static-filled 
noise, to the point that our child kept removing the headset in frustration.

Any suggestions? Are any others on this list having better luck with described 
programming for their kids? Kendra wants to know what is on TV shows, but no 
matter how hard I try, I cannot keep up and tell her what is happening all the 
time-- I really need some DVS shows for her to enjoy, and to share with her 
bother (and her parents, for that matter).

Described Audio is a great idea as far as I am concerned, but what a shame that 
is has not caught on like Closed Captioning which is part of pretty much every 
title broadcast and which you can buy commercially. I do understand that there 
are new regulations that just came into play and there will be more described 
programming broadcast, increasing in years to come, but I need to access what I 
can for Kendra now-- not 10 years down the road.
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