BBC | Access 2.0

BBC iPlayer promises to deliver on audio description

By Paul Crichton
18 May 07, 04:53 PM

The iPlayer, which is the media player that will be used to deliver the BBC’s catch-up service, could become the best way to access audio described material available – online or offline.

Currently, to access TV programmes with audio description (AD), you need cable or satellite TV, as there are now no Freeview set-top boxes on the market capable of supplying it. Or you will need to splash out thousands on a brand spanking new TV provided by companies like Panasonic or Sony. But to access audio description via the iPlayer, all you will need to do is download and install it. For nothing.

For those of you not familiar with audio description, it is an extra narrative voice added to a programme to help explain what is happening for visually impaired people. It may include stage directions (“Bob goes into the kitchen”) or facial expressions (“Bob frowns”), or indeed anything to increase the understanding of what is happening on the screen. You can see an example of AD in action in an advert for the BBC on the RNIB website. Audio description might not be as well known as captioning or subtitling, but it is every bit as important to understanding a programme to those who need it.

The BBC already has a major commitment to providing audio description to broadcast material. The corporation has already pledged to provide AD to 10% of its programming by 2008. That material will be available on the iPlayer, which is good news if you can’t currently get audio description. That is why iPlayer may become the best way to access audio described content around.