Subtitles for the Blind
Unsung Science
CBS News
4.9 • 1.1K Ratings
🗓️ 14 January 2022
⏱️ 50 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
You already knew that you can turn on subtitles for your TV show or movie—handy if you’re hearing impaired, or just want to understand the dialogue better. But there’s a corresponding feature for people with low vision: audio description tracks, where an unseen narrator tells you, in real time, what’s happening on the screen. But who creates them, and how, and when? And how do they describe the action during fast dialogue, fast action, sex scenes, and screens full of scrolling credits? A deep dive into a bizarre art form most people didn’t know exists.
Guests: Lauren Berglund, consumer relations coordinator at the Guide Dog Foundation. Bill Patterson, founder, Audio Description Solutions. Rhys Lloyd, studio head, Descriptive Video Works. Bryan Gould, director of the National Center for Accessible Media at WGBH.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | You're probably familiar with closed captions on TV shows and movies, subtitles, an essential |
| 0:08.4 | feature if you have trouble hearing. |
| 0:10.7 | But what if you have trouble seeing? |
| 0:14.9 | The Great White's massive head pops up above the surface, as Brody chucks another scoop |
| 0:18.9 | of chum into the water. |
| 0:22.1 | You're going to need a pick-up pot. |
| 0:24.7 | Audio description is a mysterious, alternative audio track that's been sitting right under |
| 0:29.9 | your nose for decades. |
| 0:31.9 | Today you'll meet the people who create those tracks. |
| 0:35.4 | They have to describe vast action by multiple characters without ever intruding on the |
| 0:40.4 | dialogue. |
| 0:41.4 | I'm David Pogue, and this is Unsung Science. |
| 0:50.9 | For two decades FBI agent Robert Hansen sold secrets to the Kremlin. |
| 0:55.1 | He violated everything that my FBI stood for. |
| 0:58.2 | Hansen was the most damaging spy in FBI history, and his betrayals didn't end there. |
| 1:03.2 | Do I hate him? |
| 1:04.2 | No, I don't hate anyone. |
| 1:05.7 | But his motive. |
| 1:06.7 | I would love to know what his true motive so I can get that out of me. |
| 1:10.9 | How did he do it? |
| 1:12.1 | Why? |
| 1:13.1 | Follow agent of betrayal to double life of Robert Hansen wherever you get your podcast. |
... |
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