Movies play a big role in many of our lives. For the 1 in 30 Americans who are blind or have visual impairments, audio descriptions make a world of difference.

Making media accessible means providing the support needed for people of all abilities to enjoy it at almost the same level, and get as close to the same value out of the experience as possible. It means embracing diversity.

That’s one thing Chicago documentary powerhouse Kartemquin Films is working towards building as they release their first audio described DVD this January with As Goes Janesville, and announced their plans to offer it as a standard for future DVD releases.  They even included this neat minute-long video that shows you a back-to-back comparison of a film with and without audio descriptions, to give you a taste of what it’s like to “watch” a movie as a person who is blind.

Thanks to Kartemquin Films for being a leader in disability-awareness. Check out their full article A Voice Is Worth A Thousand Pictures for more details. Also check out what JJ’s List team member Jake Joehl wrote about personally being an audio description user.

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Kartemquin Films has been making documentaries that examine and critique society through the stories of real people for over 45 years. JJ’s List Executive Director JJ Hanley worked with Kartemquin Films to produce the multiple award-winning PBS documentary Refrigerator Mothers, about mothers who were blamed for supposedly causing Autism in their children.

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