Plain answers
What is audio description?
Audio description is a narrated track that says what is happening on screen — the action, the faces, the settings, any text — in the pauses between the dialogue, so a blind or low-vision viewer can follow the film by ear.
The FCC’s rule calls it “video description” and defines it as narrated descriptions of a program’s key visual elements, inserted into natural pauses in the dialogue (47 CFR 79.3). The web accessibility standard, WCAG 2.1, asks for it on prerecorded video at level AA, success criterion 1.2.5.
What it sounds like
A describer writes a script timed to the gaps in the soundtrack, and a voice reads it into those gaps, mixed under and around the film’s own sound. Good description says what a sighted viewer would need to follow the story, without interpreting it for you. Our described films are the quickest way to hear it: they are free, with no account.
Who is audio description for?
Mainly blind and low-vision viewers, though people with some cognitive disabilities, and anyone listening rather than watching, use it too.
Is audio description the same as captions?
No. Captions put the sound on screen for viewers who cannot hear it; audio description puts the picture into the soundtrack for viewers who cannot see it.
What is extended audio description?
Description that pauses the picture where a gap in the dialogue is too short, so nothing important has to be left out.
Captions are covered in audio description vs captions, and free places to watch in where to watch audio described movies free.
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Last checked 24 October 2026. The rules cited here are in force as of the date above.