The Audio Description Project (ADP), an initiative of the American Council of the Blind (ACB), aims to bring more meaning and enjoyment to entertainment, cultural, and educational experiences for blind and visually impaired people.
ADP maintains a list of described DVDs, broadcast television, movies, performing arts, museums, and national parks on the ADP website, www.acb.org/adp. As the only repository of all audio described titles on DVD and the three video streaming services (Amazon Prime Video, iTunes, and Netflix), the ADP decided to create an index of all the titles. Here are the described video statistics as of February 1 from the the ADP Master AD List:
SUMMARY: 3780 unique described videos and TV Series. 1722 videos were duplicated in more than one service.
22 Current Movies; 1212 DVDs; 13 Apple TV+; 387 Disney+; 71 Hulu; 1208 iTunes; 1120 Netflix; 1675 Prime-Video; 7 Other; 216 TV Series: 31 ABC, 15 CBS, 2 CW, 26 FOX, 21 NBC, 25 DISCOVERY, 21 HGTV, 25 HISTORY, 18 TBS, 10 TNT, 22 USA.
The following DVDs and Blu-ray discs were released with audio description tracks last month. The links are clickable and take you to the description on our website. Almost all of them are also available on iTunes and Prime Video.
- Harriet
- Motherless Brooklyn
- Terminator: Dark Fate
- Black and Blue
- Countdown
- Pain & Glory
- The Addams Family
- Zombieland: Double Tap
- Gemini Man
- Maleficent: Mistress of Evil
- Joker
The streaming services added the following net number of described videos this past month (net = adds minus deletes): Apple+ = 1; Disney+ = 79; Hulu = 3; iTunes = 15; Netflix = 27; Prime Video = 24. The Disney+ number is partially catching up, but truly many titles were added. Prime Video is finally winding down after having added 187 per month in the last six months of 2019! They lead with the total number of described videos: 1675.
Other news from the ADP website this month:
- We announced the availability of FREE movies with audio description on the IMDb TV streaming service. Amazon owns both Prime Video and IMDb TV, and the free videos are a subset of those on Prime Video; so we are listing their titles on the Prime Video AD Titles page. Currently 19 titles are available.
- The AD Institute will be held this month, but enrollment is full. Your next opportunity to be trained as an audio describer will be in March and April in North Carolina. See our Education page.
- I posted my “Look Back at Audio Description in 2019” on January 1. Wow, have the numbers grown! The report is still on the main page of our website. Believe it or not, 119 new described videos were added this January alone, a growth rate of over 3%.
- Many new described TV shows were announced.
- We noted that 8 of the 9 Oscar nominees for Best Picture have AD tracks, as do almost all movies in local cinemas these days.