To provide more audio description movies in the iTunes Store

To provide more audio description movies in the iTunes Store

The issue

As I am legally blind, I would like to see audio description provided on many more movies in the iTunes stores for people who are blind or vision impaired. Many DVDs have audio description on them, but they require someone who is sighted to go into the menu section, select the language option and turn the audio description on. If the audio description is available for a movie on DVD, then iTunes should make it available in their stores. iPhones and iPads are becoming popular in the blind community, and are used by both adults and children, but at the moment there are only a very few movies in the iTunes store with audio description. Providing more would be incredibly beneficial for people who are blind or vision impaired, as we can download them directly to our iPhone or iPad, then the voiceover that comes with all Apple products will read out the movie title for us. This way we could keep all our audio described movies in one area on our device, as well as allow us to access the movie on the go or in our free time without having to rely on sighted assistance to turn on this feature for us. Last September I took Apple to the Human Rights Commission about this problem. After a conciliation meeting between myself and Apple, they told me that this has not their responsibility, it’s up to the main movie distributors. I don’t think that’s a good enough excuse. There are obviously no technical issues with putting audio description on iTunes, and Netflix has a lot more audio described movies in its Australian store. information on what audio description is can be found hear www.audiodescription.com.au/ So please sign this petition and help get more audio description on iTunes

Confirmed victory

This petition made change with 181 supporters!

The issue

As I am legally blind, I would like to see audio description provided on many more movies in the iTunes stores for people who are blind or vision impaired. Many DVDs have audio description on them, but they require someone who is sighted to go into the menu section, select the language option and turn the audio description on. If the audio description is available for a movie on DVD, then iTunes should make it available in their stores. iPhones and iPads are becoming popular in the blind community, and are used by both adults and children, but at the moment there are only a very few movies in the iTunes store with audio description. Providing more would be incredibly beneficial for people who are blind or vision impaired, as we can download them directly to our iPhone or iPad, then the voiceover that comes with all Apple products will read out the movie title for us. This way we could keep all our audio described movies in one area on our device, as well as allow us to access the movie on the go or in our free time without having to rely on sighted assistance to turn on this feature for us. Last September I took Apple to the Human Rights Commission about this problem. After a conciliation meeting between myself and Apple, they told me that this has not their responsibility, it’s up to the main movie distributors. I don’t think that’s a good enough excuse. There are obviously no technical issues with putting audio description on iTunes, and Netflix has a lot more audio described movies in its Australian store. information on what audio description is can be found hear www.audiodescription.com.au/ So please sign this petition and help get more audio description on iTunes

The Decision Makers

Apple iTunes
Apple iTunes
blind and vision impaired community
blind and vision impaired community

Petition Updates