Fife film fan urges television and film producers to release titles with audio-description

Billy Horsburgh has the sight loss condition glaucoma, but still eagerly follows serials and films streamed on television where additional voice-over narration explains what is happening to the viewer.

Billy (39) is working with sight loss charity RNIB to urge producers and distributors to audio-describe all their films, not just a token few.

https://www.fifetoday.co.uk/news/people/fife-anti-poverty-campaigners-urge-rethink-on-universal-credit-cuts-3301407

https://www.fifetoday.co.uk/news/people/kirkcaldy-community-rallies-around-father-and-son-who-lost-everything-in-house-fire-3301386

https://www.fifetoday.co.uk/news/people/fifer-takes-on-ben-nevis-challenge-in-mental-health-fundraiser-3301783

He said: "I feel it's important for people like myself who enjoy audio-described programmes to have a wider access to such content.

"Despite the number of programmes that now have audio-description when broadcast on television, none of these have an AD-track when released on DVD and Blu-ray.

"I feel that every TV series box-set - such as 'Killing Eve', 'Line of Duty', 'White House Farm', 'Skins' - should be re-released with an AD track.

"I'm working with RNIB to contact all the major broadcasters to hopefully encourage them to re-release all their major box-set series with audio-description."

Sonali Rai, broadcast and audio-description manager with RNIB, said: "We fully support Billy's campaign for more content to be audio-described on home entertainment platforms.

"UK film distributors have a great track-record of releasing their new titles with audio-description on DVD and Blu-rays, but it’s when the box-sets are released that audio-description is often forgotten or left out.

“We also want audio-description to be listed under the DVD and Blu-ray specifications on a retailer's website as this would make it easy for blind and partially sighted film fans to confirm which ones have audio-description."

Thank you for reading this article on our free-to-read website. We're more reliant on your support than ever as the shift in consumer habits brought about by coronavirus impacts our advertisers.

Please consider purchasing a subscription to our print newspaper to help fund our trusted, fact-checked journalism.