Galway Company TMI, which is part of the Telegael Group, has launched its new Audio Description (AD) service.
AD is an extra soundtrack on a TV show or film. When turned on, listeners will hear a narrator describing the images, landscape, and characters currently on screen. It does not overlap with the dialogue of the original show. People who have a visual impairment or who are blind are the main consumers of AD.
In the past, people could only really access AD on the DVDs of major international productions and very successful films. Now, with the advent of digital TV and online video streaming services, combined with a greater global commitment to accessibility, Audio Description has become much more widely available.
TMI is part of the Telegael Group whose credits include a number of Emmy and IFTA Award-winning TV shows. Clients of Telegael include RTÉ, Disney, Discovery Kids, TG4, BBC, France Télévisions, Netflix, Super-RTL, Nickelodeon and Cartoon Network.
In addition to subtitling, live translation subtitling and surtitling (captions for theatres), Telegaels expansion into audio description is the latest service provided by TMI, which increases accessibility to TV shows and movies, bringing them to an even wider audience.