Midwest Tape Offers Collection of Described Videos

Described video, or Descriptive Video Service (DVS)—pioneered by WGBH Media Access Group—provides audio descriptions of key visual elements within such visual media formats as TV and film to visually impaired and blind audiences.¹ WGBH, the Public Broadcasting Station in Boston, Massachusetts, developed its Media Access Group roughly 30 years ago with the mission of creating and delivering captioned and described media “to people in their homes, classrooms, at work, and in the community.”² With over 20 million people in the U.S.—12 million of them movie watchers—possessing some form of significant visual impairment, major studios have really stepped up to enhance the public’s media-viewing experience.³

Such studios as PBS Home Video, Sony Pictures Home Entertainment, and Universal Studios Home Entertainment provide described video on select DVD titles. Sony Pictures Home Entertainment also provides described video on select Blu-ray Disc™ releases.

With the increase of described video-enabled DVDs and Blu-rays, Midwest Tape has created a collection of DVS titles to help libraries fulfill the needs of their patrons. To shop our collection of Described Videos, click the image below or follow this link.

¹http://main.wgbh.org/wgbh/pages/mag/resources/the-abcs-of-dvs.html

²http://main.wgbh.org/wgbh/pages/mag/about/

³http://www.videobusiness.com/article/CA6687351.html