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Bridges Resource Library

Audio Description Project of the American Council of the Blind (ACB)

Updated as of September 7, 2024.

What Is Audio Description?

Audio description is a feature built into a video that provides verbal descriptions of visual elements of a visual production. This post focuses on videos produced for entertainment purposes, like movies and television shows.

Other videos benefit from audio description, including education-related and how-to videos and recordings of meetings and conferences held via distance technology. Often, the audio description needed in these videos is based more on voicing text-based information presented on the screen rather than describing characters’ actions.

Find out more about audio description for both entertainment and educational/employment purposes in the Bridges Resource Library’s Audio Description entry.

About the ACB’s Audio Description Project (ADP)

The ACB’s Audio Description Project is an incredible and unparalleled source of information about audio description.

In 2009, the American Council of the Blind (ACB) took the helm of the then-seven-year-old volunteer-driven project: Audio Description International (ADI). In doing so, ACB provided resources to sustain the work and an environment where this project could grow into the treasure trove of audio description that it is today. Find out more on the ACB Audio Description Project’s All About Audio Description web page.

ACB’s Audio Description Project provides general information, updates lists of available audio-described videos, and provides tools for aficionados to discuss and dream.

Social media, listservs, and more

ADP on social media:

Social media not sponsored by the ADP, but mentioned on its website:

More informational web pages from ADP:

Audio Description Training and Education Resources from ADP

Audio Description Project Conferences web page

Includes links to sessions from the 2024 Audio Description Conferences as well as links to sessions from past ADP Conferences.

Training resources

Great information for training to become a professional Audio Describer as well as background information about AD. Includes:

ADP’s Lists of Available Audio-described Videos in Theaters, on DVD, on TV, and from Streaming Services

The ADP provides regularly updated and searchable lists of videos that are available from many major streaming services. Note: While most videos are in English, the ADP has a web page dedicated to “Non-English AD.”

ADP Master List

ADP’s Master List is aptly named. This list encompasses a plethora of titles (as of September 3, almost 10,000 titles) available from a dizzying array of sources – both free and fee-based. and links to sub-lists. Each title on the Master List shows where it can be found. Just check out this listing of 101 Dalmatians:

Additional lists

In addition to its Master List, the ADP provides pages dedicated to movies in theaters and on DVD, it provides information about audio-described videos on television and from major streaming services. Not only can you narrow your search by video type (movie or television), but you may also sort by genre and by year. Moreover, the audio-described videos on this list contain hyperlinks that take you to that video on that steaming service. Please find below the list – straight from the ACB ADP Master List web page.

Streaming Services

Audio Description in Real Life

Performing Arts venues

The ADP’s “Performing Arts with Audio Description” web page catalogs these venues throughout the country and sets forth the information on a state-by-state basis. Here is Maryland’s entry:

Other venues with AD

ADP’s “Audio Description at Museums, Parks, Exhibits, and More!” web page sets forth information about audio description services available at museums, parks, and more such venues across America. Unfortunately, Maryland does not have an entry in this section, so we set forth information about our neighbor to the south: Washington, D.C.:

  • The International Spy Museum offers an audio described tour.
  • The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts (aka The Kennedy Center) will provide audio description for most of its performances if requested at least three weeks in advance.
  • The Library of Congress is now offering a touch tour twice a month.  Press Release. News article.
  • The National Gallery of Art:  Audio tours providing vivid descriptions of works of art are conducted by Picture This on the fourth Wednesdays and Saturdays of each month starting at 1:00 PM in the rotunda of the gallery’s West Building. The tours last about an hour.
  • The Smithsonian museums have limited audio description available in the form of information specialists and docents.  Ask at the information desk.  Films have description, but you need to request earphones.  Specific museum accessibility information call-in numbers follow:
    • African Arts: 202.633.4600
    • Air and Space Museum – Both Locations: 202.633.1000 (Request 3 weeks in advance)
    • American Art Museum: 202.633.7970 (recording) – docent-led tour for visitors who are blind or have low vision; includes touch tours (photo below); read this late 2018 article on the American Art Museum
    • Anacostia Museum: 202.633.1000 (follow the prompts)
    • Arts and Industry: 202.633.1000 (follow the prompts)
    • Freer Gallery: 202.633.4880
    • Hirshhorn Museum: 202.633.1000 (follow the prompts)
    • Museum of American History: 202.633.1000 (follow the prompts)
    • Museum of Natural History: 202.633.1000 (follow the prompts) Try the Insect Zoo Audio Description Tour online
    • National Museum of the American Indian: 202.633.1000 (follow the prompts)
    • National Portrait Gallery: 202.633.8506. Portrait Insight Tours by request only: verbal descriptions and tactile objects included. For more information or to request a tour, email NPGAccess@si.edu. You may also listen to prerecorded audio descriptions of selected works, or download the free Smartify app in the Apple Store or the Smartify app in the Google Play Store listen to descriptions.
    • National Postal Museum: 202.633.2991
    • National Zoo: 202.633.2922
    • Sackler Gallery: 202.633.4800
    • Smithsonian Castle: 202.633.1000 (follow the prompts)
  • The United States Holocaust Memorial Museum will provide a special guided tour for blind and visually impaired visitors upon request.  You can download the Audio Tour of the Museum’s Hall of Witness and Hall of Remembrance in advance for your own device, or ask to borrow one at the museum.
  • The George Washington Memorial Parkway has wayside signs with tactile elements and some audio components.  If you wish to experience a tour with audio components, contact the park ahead of time. 

Visit the ACB Audio Description Project Early and Often

As you can tell, the ACB’s Audio Description Project contains up-to-date information and valuable resources on all things related to audio description. Please take the time to explore the ADP, and consider breaking your trips into several visits – there is so very much available.

Contact the Bridges Helpdesk for More Information

This unique project is being coordinated through The IMAGE Center of Maryland, a center for independent living in Towson, and it is funded by a grant from the Maryland Department of Education Division of Special Education/Early Intervention Services.

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