VITAC, a Verbit company, was proud to sponsor and provide captions for the American Council of the Blind’s (ACB) 2024 Audio Description Awards Gala.
The gala recognized outstanding achievements in audio description in entertainment and educational media. The event featured celebrity guests, film clips, and more than a dozen awards celebrating accessible films, TV series, books, and video games.
VITAC has provided captions for the event since its inception in 2021.
The gala – which was broadcast on multiple platforms, including NBC Universal Peacock, ACB Media, ACB’s YouTube channel and ADAwardsGala.org – featured captions, audio description, American Sign Language (ASL) interpretation and Spanish dubbing and description.
Awards were presented to:
- Joel Snyder, PhD – AD Visionary Award
- Vimeo – Innovation Award
- Sony Interactive Entertainment and Insomniac Games – Gaming Award
- Fred Rogers Productions – Education Award
- Paramount Global – Popular Entertainment Award
- Microsoft – Advertising and Promotion Award
- NBCUniversal – Live Events Award
- Plaza Sesamo – Spanish Media (USA) Award
- SkyUK – International Media Award
- Prospector Theater – Total Access Award
- All the Light We Cannot See (Netflix/IDC) – People’s Choice Award (Series)
- Dune 2 (Warner Bros. Discovery/Deluxe U.S.) – People’s Choice Award (Film)
The American Council of the Blind is a member-driven organization representing individuals who are blind or have low vision. In addition to VITAC, Gala sponsors included Amazon, Microsoft, Netflix, The Walt Disney Company, Warner Bros. Discovery, Fox Corporation, Paramount, Spectrum, the National Association of Broadcasters and SurveyMonkey.
Audio description’s growing popularity
Audio description makes video programming more accessible to individuals who are blind or with low vision through the insertion of audio narrated descriptions of a program’s key visual elements into natural pauses between the program’s dialogue.
On television networks, audio description is accessed by navigating to the Secondary Audio Program (SAP) channel, usually in the accessibility settings of a set-top box. On streaming platforms, audio description can be chosen as a separate audio language.
In the US, Federal Communications Commission (FCC) rules require local TV affiliates of ABC, CBS, Fox and NBC that are located in the top 100 TV markets to provide 87.5 hours per calendar quarter (about 7 hours per week) of audio-described programming, of which 50 hours must be prime time and/or children’s programming and 37.5 hours be any type of programming shown between 6 AM and midnight.
The FCC also requires the same of the top five cable networks (currently TLC, HGTV, Hallmark, History and TBS) that broadcast a significant amount of prerecorded content.
Like captions, which now are used by people who are hearing and deaf alike, the popularity of audio description is growing and expanding beyond its original audience and caters to a world of multi-tasking TV watchers who want to understand action on TV without focusing solely on the video.
The FCC has taken notice of this demand for more described content and instituted a plan to expand audio description regulations to all US broadcast market areas.
The plan would see the commission’s audio description requirements expand to an additional 10 Designated Market Areas (DMAs) per year until all remaining DMAs are covered. A Designated Market Area is a region of the United States that is used to define television and radio markets. There are 210 DMAs covering the US and usually are defined based on metropolitan areas, with suburbs often being combined within.
The plan would see audio description requirements phased-in with DMAs 101 through 110 in January 2025, and extending to 10 additional television markets per year until the phase-in concludes with DMAs 201 through 210 on January 1, 2035.
Work with an audio description leader
VITAC and Verbit have decades of combined experience in providing audio description and accessible communications. We partner with a wide variety of media and entertainment clients – and others – and work closely with them to help achieve their accessibility goals. Connect with one of our accessibility experts today to learn how we can partner with you.