Greetings wonderful readers! Today, I wanted to shed some light on a really cool organization, founded on an awesome idea. One that, to be quite frank, I wish more people considered. It has been embraced by some, and no matter what happens it will remain a positive thing, but I would like to see people really jump on this, both blind and sighted. That is why I’m writing this blog. The subject is a web site called youdescribe.org. Let’s discuss them!

Youdescribe.org is a web site dedicated to audio description of Youtube videos. It is actually created with the idea that anyone who is willing can contribute. It isn’t a network of professionals, it is a network of volunteers. Certainly, this leads to a combination of good and bad descriptions, but most who choose to contribute seem genuinely interested in providing the blind the descriptions they seek. In short, even with the bad descriptions, the effort is there.

Youtube, as I’m sure you know, is full of videos. I mean, we’re talking billions of videos. Youdescribe does not ask its volunteers to start from video 1, and begin describing until they’re done. That would never work. Instead, they leave the choice to the visually impaired who want the descriptions. Youdescribe has a search field. Enter something into it, and you’ll see 2 sets of results. The first set will show you any results related to your search that have already been audio described. The second is essentially a Youtube search, showing you Youtube results for videos that have not been audio described yet. If the search result you’re looking for is in the list of videos that haven’t been described, you can click a button next to the result that says “request audio description for this video,” and as long as you’re logged in with google, you’re done. The video will be added to the request list, which is accessed through a link on the homepage. Then, it’s up to the describers.

From what I can tell, it’s an easy system for the describers as well. They can actually use the same search field as the visually impaired do, because there’s another button right next to the request button for Youtube results. There is, in fact, a button which says “provide a description for this video.” So if there is something the describer personally believes should be described, they can do their own search and provide it. Second, they can look at the previously-mentioned request list, and pick something from there to add an audio description to. I have sent many a request myself, to be honest.

Actually recording descriptions is something I can’t say too much about, but there are a couple things I have noticed. You can record 2 types of descriptions. In one type, the audio description plays while the video does, which is perfect as long as you can describe events succinctly. However, there is a second type, which will pause the video playback while your description is being played. These can be mixed and matched in the same audio description for a video, meaning that if you can describe one thing while the video plays, but need more time for another thing later, you can do that. Again, I can’t speak too much for how this works mechanically, as I’ve of course never personally recorded an audio description, but it seems intuitive.

Audio described videos play in an accessible player when the visually impaired person selects them. During playback, they can access a suite of features, such as adjusting the audio balance between description and video, and even changing the audio describer if more than 1 person has recorded a description for the video. Once done, audio descriptions can be rated, and feedback provided. All feedback is handled through checkboxes, keeping it constructive and helpful for the audio describers. The idea is to keep them describing things, and improving as they go. It’s all an effort to help people, be they visually impaired, or audio describers.

To close this blog, I just reiterate that this is a really great organization founded on an awesome idea. I hope this blog has enlightened you to it if you didn’t previously know about it, and if you did, I hope it has increased your appreciation of it. Given my readership, maybe this blog will create more volunteers to audio describe more content. Even if not, I think this is important enough that the word should be spread. Thanks as always for reading, and continue to be awesome!