My name is Samuel and I have been blind for over 10 years now. I launch this petition in favor of all the visually impaired.

The issue that interests me lies within the sphere of the entertainment industry and I address this petition to some of the main streaming platforms, starting with Amazon Prime but also Disney+, Netflix and many others that are spreading over time. I preferred not to mention Apple TV because for now it's not part of the problem.

We, blind or visually impaired people, in order to enjoy multimedia content (such as films, TV series, cartoons, etc.), need a description - especially for those scenes where there are no dialogues. This feature is called audio description. There are obviously audio descriptions in different languages, as well as subtitles, but unfortunately in Italy this service on some platforms is not yet well known or available.

On Amazon Prime, for example, there are very few and those that are present are from quite old catalogues. I kindly ask that this right of mine can be affirmed, also because I am someone who pays a normal subscription like everyone else, and I ask that the platform can become able to manage the service fully and independently.

As for Netflix, I only ask that it continues with the work done so far, and to add many other contents with audio description, because fortunately in this case the audio descriptions are more present than on Prime Video. A very effective feature present on Netflix, for example, is that in the search bar I can write "audio descriptions in Italian" and in the results I get all the audio content described in that language at that moment, but I can also select English, French, etc.

This feature would also be very useful on Prime Video but it is not available yet, I have kindly asked the company many times to work on their accessibility through their official channels, but I have never received a positive response until today.

As for Disney+, here there are only two audio contents described in Italian since my last update, I hope they will notice this lack as soon as possible: there are many children and young people forced to watch with their parents because they cannot find the audio descriptions .

At the cinema, we manage ourselves through an app called MovieReading, where there are mostly audio descriptions and some subtitles, so it is also useful for the deaf. It works by syncing with cinema audio, you just put on an earphone to hear the description when there is no dialogue. The audio descriptions are made by various associations in Italy, so there are people who write them and those who record them: being a right of many people who find themselves in these conditions, I would like an agreement to be found between the many platforms in order to then have a wide choice of content for us.

I can also imagine that many people do not know anything about this feature and maybe they will often wonder how blind people can watch movies and their favorite TV series or go to the cinema.

We need more awareness of society from this point of view too: more information and open-mindedness, don't be afraid to ask because many are afraid of offending and prefer to remain silent rather than asking.