Video Description
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Author:
n/a -
Send To:
Disney
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Sponsored By:
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More Info at:
P.O. Box 11703
Stanford CA 94309
Buena Vista/Walt Disney Pictures
500 S. Buena Vista Street
Burbank, CA 91521
Buena Vista/Walt Disney Pictures,
My name is Nicole Torcolini. I thoroughly enjoy the movies that the company produces. However, lately, a problem has developed that causes myself and thousands of others to not only not fully enjoy movies but to even find watching movies frustrating. You might ask how this could possibly be. I and thousands of others are blind. We cannot enjoy movies if the movies do not have video description tracks (an extra track, added onto the main soundtrack, of narrations of key visual elements, such as actions, costumes, gestures, and scene changes), the exclusion of which has now become the norm with the transition to DVD's. I, and thousands of others, ask that Disney consider including video description tracks on the DVD's.
If you wonder if video description tracks are really necessary to understand what is happening, consider watching one of the Disney movies with your eyes shut. There are so many details that are conveyed visually, but not audibly, that it is impossible to understand what is going on at any given moment, much less understand the entire plot. Take Pirates of the Caribbean as an example. In the opening scene, how is a person who is blind supposed to know that there is an upside down umbrella floating in the water or that, more importantly, Will is wearing the pirate medallion or that Elizabeth sees the Black Pearl? I could go on for pages about all of the minute, yet important, details in so many of the scenes of just that movie alone that people who are blind cannot detect without video description.
Naturally, you would ask why, if description is so important, a person who is blind cannot just have a sighted person describe the movie? Have you ever played the role of either the describer or the person to whom the movie is being described? For both, the experience can be very frustrating. Again, consider Pirates of the Caribbean. Having never before seen it, would you be able to comprehend and describe all of the actions--Jack kicking free the pin holding down the cannon, Jack throwing the coin to Will--before the next action? Furthermore, imagine seeing the scene with the skeleton crew on board the Black Pearl with Elizabeth and trying to recover from the revelation in time to explain before the pirates start throwing Elizabeth around. And how does this leave the person to whom the movie is being described feeling? Lost, confused, frustrated, excluded. What is so funny? What is so shocking? Why is Elizabeth screaming? Those very elements that are meant to stir emotion are the ones that also leave a person dumb struck for the moment, making them unable to describe whatever it is that has just happened.
I hope that Disney will consider including video description tracks on DVD, baring in mind the situation described above.
Stanford CA 94309
Buena Vista/Walt Disney Pictures
500 S. Buena Vista Street
Burbank, CA 91521
Buena Vista/Walt Disney Pictures,
My name is Nicole Torcolini. I thoroughly enjoy the movies that the company produces. However, lately, a problem has developed that causes myself and thousands of others to not only not fully enjoy movies but to even find watching movies frustrating. You might ask how this could possibly be. I and thousands of others are blind. We cannot enjoy movies if the movies do not have video description tracks (an extra track, added onto the main soundtrack, of narrations of key visual elements, such as actions, costumes, gestures, and scene changes), the exclusion of which has now become the norm with the transition to DVD's. I, and thousands of others, ask that Disney consider including video description tracks on the DVD's.
If you wonder if video description tracks are really necessary to understand what is happening, consider watching one of the Disney movies with your eyes shut. There are so many details that are conveyed visually, but not audibly, that it is impossible to understand what is going on at any given moment, much less understand the entire plot. Take Pirates of the Caribbean as an example. In the opening scene, how is a person who is blind supposed to know that there is an upside down umbrella floating in the water or that, more importantly, Will is wearing the pirate medallion or that Elizabeth sees the Black Pearl? I could go on for pages about all of the minute, yet important, details in so many of the scenes of just that movie alone that people who are blind cannot detect without video description.
Naturally, you would ask why, if description is so important, a person who is blind cannot just have a sighted person describe the movie? Have you ever played the role of either the describer or the person to whom the movie is being described? For both, the experience can be very frustrating. Again, consider Pirates of the Caribbean. Having never before seen it, would you be able to comprehend and describe all of the actions--Jack kicking free the pin holding down the cannon, Jack throwing the coin to Will--before the next action? Furthermore, imagine seeing the scene with the skeleton crew on board the Black Pearl with Elizabeth and trying to recover from the revelation in time to explain before the pirates start throwing Elizabeth around. And how does this leave the person to whom the movie is being described feeling? Lost, confused, frustrated, excluded. What is so funny? What is so shocking? Why is Elizabeth screaming? Those very elements that are meant to stir emotion are the ones that also leave a person dumb struck for the moment, making them unable to describe whatever it is that has just happened.
I hope that Disney will consider including video description tracks on DVD, baring in mind the situation described above.
2458 Signatures
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Nick Gardner
- Comments
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Taylor Young
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Su Da
- Comments
- В
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Robert Shelton
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Vanessa Lerma
- Comments
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Fiona Hinze
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Sara Maatta
- Comments
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Ross Shachter
- Comments
- Stanford University Faculty
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Akima Edwards
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Elizabeth Wei
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Jeff Bigham
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Millie Becker
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Jeffrey Sweet
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Viola Cruz
- Comments
- I have several Disney movies. Polly Anna, the original Peter Pan to name a couple and it would have been nice to have them video described.
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Sara Parke
- Comments
- В
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Sonha Hoang
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Jessica Talbert
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william f. abrams
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Jocelyn Ko
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Bria Long
- Comments
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Thais Hernandez
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Raylene Poppino
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Tamara Alexander
- Comments
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Emily Wang
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Jennifer Lee
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Ben Duncan
- Comments
- В
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Marian Rain
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Marian Rain
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Jarrod Marks
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Anna Gillespie
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Christy Park
- Comments
- В
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Faraz Hossein-Babaei
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Rebecca Hsu
- Comments
- В
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Molly
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Iberia Elster
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Cindy Van Winkle
- Comments
- Disney represents family; I have fond memories as a child connected with Disney movies and with my own children watching them as well. However, nothing could be better for me as a blind viewer than viewing one with audio description added. Here's an opportunity for Disney to set the stage for the entire movie industry to include those who cannot see the screen, for whatever reason, to enjoy the full effects of your movies.
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Caitlin Lynch
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Barry Levine
- Comments
- It's simply the right thing to do.
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John Harris
- Comments
- This is a long overdue improvement on Disney's video service.
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Thom Lohman
- Comments
- Description is vital to access to visual information for folks who have difficulties accessing visual information (just as captioning is vital to access for folks who are deaf or hard of hearing)
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Rod Chard
- Comments
- Often blind parents have sighted children andvice versa. Dusneey films are an excellent medium for parents and children to interact. Please make this possible for cases where one or the other is blind.
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Paula J. Petersen
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Glenn McCully
- Comments
- Hey Disney if you can grant equal benefits to your gay employees the same as those of your married employees then you can grant equal access to blind customers the same as sighted customers.
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Tim Van Winkle
- Comments
- Video Description would be a Great addition to the Disney Movies. My Wife and I could enjoy a movie night with Mickey, and If Disney would offer it on all the movies that they produce, my Wife would have an even bigger smile on her face.
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Alan Garrels
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Susan C. Krech
- Comments
- This would seem to me to be an obvious thing to do. How thoughtless of a company that protrays itself as a caring institution should exclude those who should also be able to enjoy their products.
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Anne Radetic Murphy
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Katharine Matsumoto
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carl jarvis
- Comments
- please end discrimination toward blind people by including them via described films.
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Taeresa H. Kohlbeck
- Comments
- While I'm sighted, I can understand the frustration those non-sighted would feel.
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2458
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