Several of this year’s summer blockbusters include audio description for blind and visually impaired cinemagoers, as China’s film industry begins to embrace accessibility.
Several of China’s biggest summer blockbusters have been released with audio description for blind and visually impaired cinemagoers, in a sign that the country’s film industry is gradually embracing accessibility.
Audio description — often referred to as “barrier-free movies” in China — is a separate soundtrack that plays simultaneously during a movie, describing the action as it is happening for blind and visually impaired viewers.
The service, which people typically listen to via a handset and headphones, can help blind people better visualize a scene and understand visual gags and other non-verbal cues that will enrich their enjoyment of the film.
China has an estimated 17 million people living with visual impairments, but until recently the vast majority of Chinese movies did not feature audio description.
In most cases, film studios either lacked awareness of blind people’s needs or were unwilling to invest in creating an audio description track. Barrier-free movies were only available in a few pioneering cinemas.
But that is beginning to change, with several major releases hitting cinemas with audio description this summer. The creators of “The Traveler” — a fantasy-action blockbuster adapted from a popular comic series — have made a “barrier-free version” of the movie available at 74 theaters across China, including in Beijing, Shanghai, Ningbo, Suzhou, Chongqing, and Chengdu, local media reported. Continue to read the full article here
This article originally appeared on Sixth Tone
