Audio description movies not accessible in all iTunes stores.

By blinky321, 30 May, 2015

Forum
Accessibility Advocacy
As I am legally blind, I would like to see Audio Description movies provided in all the iTunes stores (including the Australian store) for people who are blind or vision impaired, and not just the American stores. It is not fair that we have to change stores on iTunes and be made to pay extra money to have content provided in our format. IPhones and iPads are becoming popular in the blind community. Providing Audio Description movies on iOS devices would be much easier to find and access rather than going through our own Audio Description collection at home, which was purchased on disc from retail outlets. These can’t be accessed using a normal DVD player because this requires for someone who is sighted to go into the menu section select the language option then Audio Description. This does not make someone who is blind or vision impaired independent. If there are Audio Description movies on iOS devices, we could download them directly on to our iPhone or iPad, then the voiceover that comes with all Apple products would read out the movie title for us. This way we could keep all Audio Description movies in one area on our device, as well as allow us to access the movie on the go or in our free time without having to rely on sighted assistance to turn on this feature for us. If Audio Description can be available on movies that were purchased from outlet stores, why not make this content available on iTunes. The major movie chains would not be losing money because people who are blind or vision impaired would download these as well and pay like everyone else. WHAT IS AUDIO DESCRIPTION ? Audio description is the auditory narration of visual representations such as television programs, films and live performances. During gaps in dialogue, it describes visual elements such as scenes, settings, actions and costumes.. Audio description is found on TV and DVDs as a separate language track or is accessed by using audio description equipment at a cinema or live performance. It is particularly beneficial to people who are blind and vision impaired and people with print, learning and physical disabilities

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By Scotty on Sunday, June 21, 2015 - 20:44

I emailed accessibility@apple.com and asked them why AD))) is not available here in Australia and got the below response:

Hello,
Thank you for your email. With OS X Yosemite and iOS 8, Apple introduced video description functionality to allow content that includes descriptive video to be accessed via Macs, Apple TV and iOS devices.
We are happy to pass your feedback to the iTunes team and the studios from whom we source content.
Please note, the individual TV and movie studios determine which films and TV shows are available in which countries.
This also applies to video content that includes an audio described track.

Apple Accessibility

Hope this helps you
Cheers