As mandated by the Twenty-First Century Communications and Video Accessibility Act (CVAA) of 2010, the Federal Communications Commission’s (FCC) Media Bureau has submitted a report to Congress regarding video description in video programming distributed on television and video programming delivered using Internet protocol. The report addresses the status, benefits, and costs of video description in television programming and IP-delivered programming, as informed by consumer and industry experiences since the video description rules became effective. Video description makes video programming accessible to blind or visually impaired individuals through the insertion of audio narrated descriptions of a television program’s key visual elements into natural pauses between the program’s dialogue. It is typically provided through the use of a secondary audio stream, which allows the consumer to choose whether to hear the narration by switching from the main program audio.
