'Video description' gets FCC boost

For many of us, it's not easy to understand what television is like for the 12 million Americans who are blind or visually impaired. TV is always sending out visual cues, but these viewers often miss them or, because of total blindness, never see them. Imagine hearing a studio audience burst into laughter, or an episode of your favorite drama end with a sudden musical flourish and having no idea what's going on. Few people know it, but there's an innovative technique for describing scenes like these to persons with visual disabilities. Known as video description, it has been used on movies and certain TV shows since the 1980s. Now video description is expected to be widely deployed, thanks to new rules passed last week by the Federal Communications Commission. Top-rated broadcast and cable networks soon will be required to provide video description for about four hours of programming per week. The descriptions will be heard on a secondary audio (or SAP) channel and won't interfere with the regular audio. Most late-model TV sets and VCRs can pick up secondary audio. That's good news for people like Karen Folsom, a 30-year-old instructor who teaches sighted and blind students in the Kansas City area. Folsom, who has been totally blind since birth, is an enthusiast of video descriptions. They're especially helpful for nature shows, which are light on narration, and action movies, which aren't exactly known for being talky, either. "One of my favorites was 'Speed,"' Folsom said. "I liked 'Top Gun,' too. There's so much action going on in those movies. Before, I had no idea who was getting shot or why or by who." PBS is the only broadcast network currently describing its shows. Several cable channels describe some of their programs, but only one - Turner Classic Movies - is widely distributed. Ted Turner, better known as the evil colorizer of black-and-white films, also has funded video descriptions for more than 50 of his titles, including "The Wizard of Oz," "North by Northwest" and "Casablanca." To understand what makes video description so compelling to its listeners, first read this paragraph: "They are brother and sister not long independent from their mother and still struggling to hone their hunting skills. It can take many months for young cheetahs to become effective hunters." Those two sentences, taken from a recent PBS nature program, were spoken more than a minute apart. In between there was a chase, but a sight-impaired person could only guess what was going on from the soundtrack. On the secondary audio channel, however, the entire sequence was described by a second narrator whose voice was dubbed unobtrusively over the music. An excerpt: "A cheetah eyes the white backside of a grazing gazelle. The cat takes a few steps and lies down watching. "Black, tearlike streaks mark the cheetah's tawny face. The cheetah breaks into a run and closes in on an unsuspecting gazelle. It gets within 10 feet - and the gazelle bolts, sprinting to the left. The slight gazelle leans into its turn, gaining ground as the larger cheetahs pursue. One of the pursuing cheetahs throws its paws forward, slowing to a jog. Now safe, the gazelle trots away." This elegant way of describing on-screen action was pioneered at public TV station WGBH in Boston, which supplies such programs as "Masterpiece Theatre," "Nova" and "Arthur" to PBS stations. WGBH describes those shows for the visually impaired, as well as "Mystery!" "Between the Lions" and "The American Experience." Overall, however, less than 1 percent of video programming is described. That statistic spurred FCC Chairman Bill Kennard to begin prodding the networks to get on the description train. "People with visual disabilities watch television in similar numbers and with similar frequency to the general population," Kennard said last year in remarks aimed at industry officials. "You have an audience, with purchasing power, who wants access to your programming." The new guidelines, timed to this week's 10th anniversary of the Americans With Disabilities Act, also mandate more closed captioning. By 2006 nearly all TV programming will have to be captioned for people who are deaf or hearing-impaired. Like captioning, video description has the potential to help not only its intended audience but also the rest of us. As more viewers are exposed to described TV - perhaps after pressing the wrong button on their remote controls - they may start to see its benefits, just as many Americans now use captions to watch TV with the sound off. Now imagine a busy professional doing chores around the house while she listens to a described TV show. WGBH has found that children with learning disabilities get more out of a video presentation when it's described. Researchers say the descriptions may help reinforce important details with these viewers. My first encounter with video description was a broadcast of the PBS show "Mystery!" The describer acted almost like a second set of eyes, calling out extra visual details I'd overlooked. And since this was a British show, I also had the captioning on to help me with the accents. The combined effect was like pure oxygen. It elevated my senses; I was fully engaged with the show. In the last half century television has become much more than "radio with pictures." Video producers now are able to tell complex stories without speech. Last season a notable episode of "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" went more than 20 minutes without anyone saying a word. That episode was nominated for an Emmy last week - for writing. "There's much less dialogue in movies and TV than there used to be," said John Halverson of Kansas City, chairman of the Friends of Wolfner Library. The Wolfner Library, in Jefferson City, supplies Braille and audio books to more than 16,000 patrons who are unable to read ordinary books. Halverson said video description can help these people better understand "the full flavor of what's going on in society." Wolfner patrons can check out more than 250 described titles - everything from "Saving Private Ryan" to "Aladdin" to "There's Something About Mary." (Pity the soul who has to describe that film's hair gel scene.) In the initial rollout, scheduled for early 2002, video description will be required only of broadcasters in the top 25 U.S. markets and any cable or satellite system that serves more than 50,000 customers. That would include Time Warner Cable of Kansas City and Comcast, as well as satellite companies DirecTV and DISH Network. But it would exclude local network affiliates because Kansas City is the country's 31st-largest broadcast market. In comments filed with the FCC, TV lobbyists said video description would be expensive and would slow down production of shows. But WGBH said its experience was that description costs about $4,000 per hour - a pittance next to the $2 million to $3 million spent making an average one-hour drama. Meanwhile, the American Council of the Blind, which lobbied for the video description guidelines, is rallying its members behind the cause. Aficionados like Karen Folsom are also spreading the word. "I would love to see it at IMAX," she said. "If they had descriptions at IMAX and movie theaters, the public would see how cool it is." To reach Aaron Barnhart, phone (816) 234-4790 or visit the TV Barn Web site at www.tvbarn.com WHERE TO FIND VIDEO DESCRIPTION Video description will become much more widely available in 2002. Currently, people who are blind or visually impaired can hear described video the following ways: On TV: Viewers must have TV sets or VCRs that can receive the secondary audio, or SAP, channel. Turner Classic Movies: More than 50 titles in its archive are now described. The next upcoming described feature is "The Thin Man" (5 p.m. Monday). PBS (seen locally on KCPT, Channel 19) airs several described series. Look for the letters "DVS" in program listings in the monthly KCPT guide. On video: DVS Home Video (800-333-1203) offers more than 200 titles for purchase on home video, from contemporary movies to the classics, as well as video copies of select PBS programs. On IMAX: The Odyssey Theater at the Gateway Arch in St. Louis is one of the few theater venues in the country that offers video descriptions. Patrons wear a special headset so they can hear the descriptions without disturbing other theatergoers. For more information: The Web site of Boston TV station WGBH (www.wgbh.org) is the single best source for information about video access for people with disabilities. The American Council of the Blind Web site (www.acb.org) is also helpful. @ART CAPTION:Visually impaired children can hear descriptive video with the PBS show "Arthur." @ART CREDIT:1999 CINAR @ART CAPTION:PBS also describes several prime-time programs including "Mystery!" (with Patricia Routledge as Hetty Wainthropp). @ART:Photos (2, color) >>>