Audio Describing in The Cinema
VI user group zoom discussion – May 2025
Thank you to all of those who were able to attend this discussion. For those that weren’t able to be there the following is a brief summary of issues covered, if you would like to listen to the recording, it is available using the following link: www.youtube.com/watch?v=EUz8JFhSFSI
There were 22 attendees at the meeting, James Connor – UK Cinema Association, Rick Williams Freeney Ltd and 20 from the audio description association.
James introduced himself and his role. The UK Cinema Association is the trade body that covers around 95 per cent of UK cinemas including the large chains, Odion, Vue and Cineworld and some of the smaller independent operators. Like most trade bodies they advocate for their members including with government. James’ access responsibilities come within the policy part of his job.
Rick told us that he is totally blind and explained that his company Freeney Williams is a large disability consultancy which has been going for 25 years. He has been a consultant for the UK Cinema Association for 20 of those years.
James told us that the vast majority of films released in the UK have audio description. The film distributors organise the audio description track on the digital cinema Package (DCP). The DCP includes various things, the captions and IMAX were given as examples, but there are several different tracks. Some of the smaller and mid-tier distributers, as well as films that come to the UK from other territories, may not have an audio description track. This is something that the UK Cinema Association is aware of, but they can only play what is made available to them.
James explained that across the cinema sector there is a variety of technology being used and this means that some cinemas will only provide audio description on certain screens. Large cinema chains using the latest equipment should provide audio description on all their screens. Refurbishment varies from cinema to cinema and things have slowed down since the pandemic. This applies not only to access technology but all technology. Audiences have not returned to the cinema in the same numbers as pre-pandemic and this has reduced the amount of money available to invest in new technology. The UK Cinema Association has tried to monitor which cinemas provide what level of audio description, but this has proven difficult to manage. One way that does provide some information is via the accessible screenings website: https://accessiblescreeningsuk.co.uk/ this provides a way of finding out what accessible screenings are available at cinemas. This includes audio description, captions and autism friendly.
The larger operators account for around 70 per cent of the market and of that around 60 per cent of screens have audio description. Of that the audio description isn’t always good and sometimes is pretty poor. James is keen on hearing our experiences so he can feed them back to the cinemas.
James told us that they have a centrally located source of training which cinemas use. Rick has written and revises the accessibility part of it. They don’t know how cinemas actually use it. But cinemas will also have their own internal training given to new employees. They will also manage their own refresher training as well. Retention and turnover is a massive challenge for the cinema sector which makes it similar to most others in the leisure sector. Some staff go through the training, attend one shift and then leave. This is part of the reason why experiences aren’t always positive. Dealing with the staff turnover and training is an issue that is difficult to resolve.
Rick said that there were 3 elements to this. The central framework that the UK Cinema Association has that includes the key elements. He agreed with James that implementation was a bit problematical. Then there’s training that Freeney Provides. They produced a video 10 years ago which will be updated in the next year. It is on YouTube and all cinemas have access to it.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a6l5uFqQTb0
Freeney occasionally provides training for front of house staff. They also provide training to managers. Rick agreed with James that turnover was an issue. He also said that he was confident that there was some disability related training in inductions at the big cinemas but, he felt that it could probably be longer and more detailed.
A question was asked about how an individual might go about encouraging their local cinema in Canada that didn’t have audio description to add it to their offering. James stated that there are several providers involved. One is the Dolby accessibility solution.
https://professional.dolby.com/product/dolby-accessibility-solutions-for-cinema/dolby-accessibility-solution/ which is expensive and perhaps explains why some have not adopted it. There are solutions that use apps to provide the audio descriptive track that sinks with the film on the screen. These tend to be cheaper to implement. Funding might be an issue though. Rick suggested crowd funding as a possible way forward. James then suggested encouraging the cinema owner to talk to his cinema integration partner. This could be a way of getting some second hand and perhaps cheaper technology.
The issue of the time of audio described films was raised with the specific example of a lot being advertised as being at 23:30. Rick and James offered to undertake some more investigations. It was suggested that perhaps there was a misunderstanding of how audio description worked by the specific cinema as there’s no reason why every showing of a film on a screen that supports audio description shouldn’t be described. James had a quick look during the meeting and looked at the specific Vue Cinema in Edinburgh and wondered if the issue wasn’t one of tagging. Vue are perhaps the least good out of the big 3 in the area of accessibility.
A suggestion was made that there should be very brief instructions with each headset to explain how they worked. This would mean that even if there wasn’t training, the staff who handed the headphones over could check to see what needed to be done to enable the audio description to be heard.
The importance of staff knowing which parts of the cinema were best for audio description reception was emphasised. Rick and James agreed that this should be raised at the next accessibility working group.
The issue of cinemas advertising audio described films and them not being described. The example of the Picture House on Shaftsbury Avenue was given where nothing was audio described in a week, even though the Brutalist was supposed to be.
Curzon Cinemas was raised as not providing any audio description at all. James expressed some surprise at this and said he would investigate it. He thought if it were the case, it might be because of their specific financial difficulties and the fact that they were supposed to have changed owners a few years ago and then didn’t. But whatever the reasons, if they weren’t offering audio description, that might open them up to Equality Act problems.
2 comments were made about problems with reception and batteries not having enough power.
Frustration was expressed that apps for delivering audio description to cinema goers had been tested over a decade ago, but there hadn’t been any general adoption of this technology which was disappointing. James listed several apps that were capable of delivering audio description. Gretchen Starks, Ear Catch, Movie Reading, Theatre ears, SubReader and a new offering Transcribed Glass. The main obstacle to adoption in the UK is security concerns on the part of film distributors. This only seems to be a concern with the English audio description track and not with foreign language versions as these apps work across Europe. SubReader may have an advantage given it doesn’t download the audio descriptive track. Things are moving but very slowly. A recent successful legal case in Brazil has led to film distributors in the US having to look at this in more detail and this could lead to apps being used in the English speaking world. Embarressment was expressed at how slow this was.
A view was expressed that the headphones used could be uncomfortable and make the user rather conspicuous. A comment was made that different technologies were used by different cinemas and that things were not always as updated as rapidly as they could be due to the financial issues faced by the sector. These have been caused by Covid-19, the cost of living crisis, energy costs and the writers and the actors strike in Hollywood. Fewer films were produced meaning less money coming into the industry. It is hoped that with the increasing number of films being made money should increase and this should lead to more investment in updating equipment.
The other issue with replacing technology has been uncertainty around whether apps will become the default delivery mechanism. This has led to an unwillingness to replace equipment at the moment.
A comment was made that a recent law change in Denmark requires any films with state funding to have audio description should increase the number of them.
A concern was expressed that film directors, producers etc. don’t have enough knowledge about audio description and what it is supposed to do. It is hard to get them to buy into it.
A question was raised around a film that was released at the cinemas just prior to Covid and it never actually being seen there. It was then shown on Danish TV, but without the audio descriptive track that was available on the app. It was explained that the audio cues provided in the cinema version, from which the app worked out how to play the audio description were not present in the TV version.
One attendee stated that Cineworld had told them that they had not had anything audio described since Covid due to issues around cleaning equipment. Odeon initially didn’t know what audio description was. A local independent cinema had nothing on their site, but when asked confirmed that they did have the equipment, but that it had probably never been used.
Another attendee explained that they didn’t tend to visit the cinema due to poor experiences. On one occasion having to ask twice for the headphones and then not being shown how they work. The same individual raised training as an issue. One cinema asked them to present an access card prior to being allowed a free companion ticket. We were told that cinemas should not do this. Reasonable adjustments do not mean demanding a card of some sort to prove that someone has a need for a reasonable adjustment. An opinion was expressed that training allied to disinterest on the part of some young staff caused this. This will be raised again at the access working group.
An attendee referred to Auracast as a possible solution as the user could use their own headphones.
Curzon’s streaming service was mentioned and its lack of audio description. It was stated that this was a matter for OFCOM who were responsible for this. The latest report covering streaming services is here
Any comments on experiences of audio description at the cinema can be made through the contact us link at
https://accessiblescreeningsuk.co.uk/contact/
Thank you to James and Rick for coming to our meeting, providing so much useful information and agreeing to look into some of the issues raised. Paul, Maggie and I will work out the best way of following up the issues raised as part of this discussion.
If you have any comments on this subject please email vigroup@audiodescription.co.uk